Mundane affair

T he constitutionally-mandated joint session of parliament was lethargic in essence. It was a sheer waste of time and resources, and explicitly made it clear that our parliamentarians are more preoccupied in petty political interests than adhering to ethos of law and convention. The sparsely attended session on Thursday made a mockery of democracy and constitutional supremacy.

Legislators from both sides were at ease, and the last thing they did was to pay attention to the head of state at the rostrum. With the PTI already out of the house, the treasury too was not involved in making the ceremonial address a mentionable affair. PPP walked out and the rest of the ruling clique too was on its own. This mundane affair is reflective of polarisation at work, and that too at the cost of national cohesion. President Dr Arif Alvi’s speech marked the beginning of the fifth parliamentary year of the sitting parliament.

While calling for unity in the rank and file of elected representatives, the head of state underlined a number of initiatives, which could go a long way in addressing the problems faced by the nation. He rightly called for an end to bias when it comes to national interest, and pointed out the need for early elections by attaining political consensus. The president touch-based a number of issues that must elicit proper response such as introducing science to agriculture in order to yield better results, balancing the economy by taming inflation, maintaining cordial ties with the US and China; and last but not least working on electronic voting machines to make the process of ballot fair and transparent.

No head of state since 1988 has been heard by the august members with due respect, nor any effort made to incorporate the listed issues in legislation. This is an antithesis of Westminster governance. This tendency needs a serious thought to ascertain whether the clause to invite the president to address is literally required or not. There is no point in ridiculing the office of head of state for the sake of political and personal exigencies.