Back to business

With the re-election of Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, political life appears to be returning to what passes for ‘normal’

With the election of Sardar Ayaz Sadiq to the post of speaker of the lower house of parliament, political life in the parliamentary sense appears to be returning to what passes for ‘normal’ in Pakistan. In the hurly-burly of by-elections, accusations, unseatings and re-seatings in the last six months, parliamentary business has lagged by the wayside as the PTI and the PML-N slugged it out. The House had a temporary speaker appointed after Mr Sadiq was bundled out, and his return by a thumping majority of parliamentarians is a mark both of the willingness to offer support as well as a desire to get back to the task of governance. The only votes against him were those cast by the 31 PTI members, and there was a single spoilt ballot paper.

With the return of Mr Sadiq, a senior member of the PML-N, the cycle that started with the general election of 2013 may be considered (by many but not all) to have been completed. Parliament had barely ‘bedded in’ in 2014 when the dharna crisis essentially brought the day-to-day business of governance to a shuddering halt, and the lower house has hobbled along ever since. Electing Mr Sadiq with a popular mandate among the majority of MNAs bodes well for the future. Cross-party support is rare in our politics and all the more welcome for that.



Parliamentary performance since the election has been far from optimal, and even allowing for assorted impediments, the PML-N has a poor record when it comes to getting legislation on the table and then through the lower house, a record it needs to improve now that parliament has a wheel at each corner again. As for the PTI, it needs to move on from the juvenilia of politics and get on with learning its parliamentary craft if it is to hope to keep both the respect and the votes of the people of Pakistan. Parliamentary democracy worldwide is always a work in progress, never complete, but some states work harder at it than others. Pakistan has some catching up to do, and we welcome this return to (mostly) parliamentary equilibrium.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 11^th, 2015.

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