Completion of parliament’s term

Current parliament will be our first ever to serve out its term under a democratically elected president.

In an ideal world, there would be no reason to celebrate the simple fact of a government completing its term. But Pakistan has been far from an ideal country. The current parliament will, in fact, be our first ever to serve out its term under a democratically-elected president and this is indeed something to rejoice over. The picture with all parliamentarians, taken earlier this week, is poignant, for it seems that Pakistan may just reach this milestone of democracy.

At a time when the military still lurks in the shadows and the judiciary is often at loggerheads with the government, just remaining steadfast has been enough of an achievement. Now, if the government is able to smoothly appoint a caretaker set-up and free and fair elections are held on time, we will also manage to transition from one democratically-elected parliament to another for the very first time.

A considerable amount of credit for this goes to not just the PPP but the main opposition party, the PML-N. Democracy has previously failed to take root in the country because opposition parties have leapt at the opportunity to invite the military in if it suited their interests. It was at the invitation of the protesting opposition that Ziaul Haq overthrew Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s government and then simply decided to rule himself. The PML-N has shown greater maturity by protesting loudly but never wavering in its belief that democracy has to be given a chance and spared the machinations of the military.

Mere survival alone, however, is not the only accomplishment of this government. Under the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, we had a president willingly giving up powers for the first time, the removal of most clauses inserted by our various dictators and a smooth decentralisation of power. The PPP has also managed to introduce one of the more successful welfare programmes in our history, with the Benazir Income Support Programme. All major political parties are now in agreement that peace with India is a necessity. Of course, all has not been perfect. The government’s management of the economy has been poor and it seems to have no answer to the power crisis. The PPP’s regular failures in governance have been rightly criticised. But all of that pales in comparison to the hope created by the successful completion of its term.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 3^rd, 2013.