Khokhar has led from front

PPP lawmaker Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar has quit his political party on a principled ground

It’s season of dissent. PPP lawmaker Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar has called it a day with his political party. He has quit the party on a principled ground, though. Weeks earlier he had resigned from the Senatorship by citing reasons of conscience over inaction of the upper house and his party on Azam Swati’s off and on arrests and detention. Now Senator Khokhar believes the red line of appeasement has reached and he believes he cannot be part of a political force that has apparently decided to look the other way round as human rights excesses and transgression of power is becoming the order of the day. Khokhar should to be appreciated for, at least, throwing away his luxuries and exalted status for a cause of equality of law and righteousness at a time when exigency rules the roost.

Khokhar is second in line in the PPP to publicly voice his feelings. Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, the former interior minister of the party, for a while is tongue in cheek over the PPP’s political inclination for an agenda that is not really the liking and vision of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. There are no two opinions that the present hierarchy of PPP had taken a stance on several issues that do not go well with its own voters and supporters. Thus, such saner voices will always be a clarion call on society, and keep alive the spirit of agreeing to disagree in the wider domains of democracy.

A glance at evolving political equation suggests that the coalition government is in rough waters, and the note of dissent from the Mengals, ANP and BAP legislators hint at a storm in the making. Khokhar by putting his papers might have set the ball rolling. What is valued notwithstanding politics is the upholding of values in a degenerating society. Parliamentarians have a responsibility to respond to conscience and the greater value of emancipation and coexistence rather than merely remaining glued to their respective parties’ very often jaundiced stances. Then only the concept of public representation in a pluralistic society can flourish and take roots.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 18^th, 2022.

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