The present elected civilian political arrangements will complete their third year in March 2011. Their survival is an achievement in the face of the pressures from the non-elected state institutions like the military and the judiciary.
However, the political leaders and parties have not been able to create a credible civilian alternative to a military dominated political order that attracts voluntary loyalty of the people on a sustained basis. This deficiency makes the future of democracy uncertain in Pakistan.
The political parties and leaders should work towards overcoming the trust deficit that characterises their interaction with all strata of the society. This requires a major shift in their disposition, how they conduct their affairs and their interaction with the common people. They need to ensure justice and fairplay in governance and political management and pursue their affairs in a more transparent and judicious manner.
The electoral performance is one criterion to judge the popular basis of the leadership. However, this criterion suffers from a major weakness. The people do not always vote for reposing their confidence in the top leadership. Their vote may be influenced by several other considerations, i.e. local power dynamics, loyalty to local leaders, socio-economic pressures and ethnic and religious-sectarian considerations.
Above all, an electoral victory does not give a license to the political leaders to rule the country the way they prefer. The electoral legitimacy has to be supplemented by performance legitimacy. An elected government cannot continue to command the voluntary loyalty of the people if it does not effectively address their socio-economic insecurities.
The performance of the federal and provincial governments has generally been poor. The major deficiencies are in the economic domain because the economy is relying heavily on foreign assistance and the governments are unable to control the prices of essential commodities whose supply to the market is manipulated by the industrial and business/trader mafias. The federal and provincial governments appear helpless to check these practices that are increasing the concentration of wealth in the upper strata of the society and increasing economic pressures on other sections of the society. Additional insecurities are caused by increased urban violence and terrorism.
The opposition parties, especially the PML(N), are holding the PPP-led federal government responsible for the increased socio-economic pressure on the common people. As a matter of fact, all major parties have to share the blame because they are sharing power whether it be at the federal or provincial level. The PML(N), the major critic of the federal government, controls the provincial government in the Punjab, which has a greater population than the other three provinces put together. If this province is managed effectively more than half of Pakistans population will have fewer reasons to complain.
Leaving aside the activists of the political parties, the non-privileged sections of the populace are alienated from all major political parties. They do not see much difference between the PPP and the PML(N) or the PML(Q) when it comes to addressing their problems. Islamic political parties are viewed as exploiting religious sentiments and lacking any workable ideas to solve socio-economic problems. The PML(N) and other opposition parties need to understand that the alienation of the people from the PPP does not necessarily translate into increased support for them.
Though it is the responsibility of all leaders to cultivate genuine support of the people, the major responsibility is that of the two major political parties, the PPP and the PML(N). Certain steps have to be taken by each party in its individual capacity and other measures have to be adopted jointly.
The PPP governments at the federal and provincial level should improve its governance and manage a cost-effective administration. There are serious complaints of corruption in the government circles that have undermined their reputation.
The large sized federal cabinet and perk-loaded assignments to political favourites have not helped the image. Two new federal ministers were added to the federal cabinet last week. Their oath-taking was a unique event in Pakistans troubled history because the government did not wait for the return of President Zardari from Sri Lanka and the Acting President administered the oath that was not attended by the Prime Minister because of his pressing engagements elsewhere in the country. The Prime Minister announced a development package for the FATA last week in order to win the support of the parliamentarians from there for the Revised General Sales Tax (RGST) bill in the National Assembly. The war of words between two federal ministers, Hamid Saeed Kazmi and Azam Khan Swati, exposes internal rifts in the federal government which is also pressurised by its coalition partner, the MQM, by threatening to quit.
The PML(N) should go beyond high flying rhetoric against the PPP federal government by providing a well thought-out plan of action for coping with economic and societal problems. If the PML(N) is opposed to the RGST, it should provide an alternate practical proposal for generating resources. Each political party and leader endeavours to apply the principle of equity, justice and the norms of constitutional and democratic politics on its adversary. Rather, they should all observe these norms.
The principles of transparency and fairplay require that the political parties ask their parliamentarians to resign whose academic degrees have been declared fake by the concerned university. The parties are sleeping over this issue because they do not want to lose these members.
Nawaz Sharif should get over the trauma of ouster of his government by General Pervez Musharraf in October 1999 and spend more energy on coping with current and future problems.
The PML(N) does not improve its image by denying that Nawaz Sharifs sentence was commuted by President Musharraf and that he was allowed to leave for Saudi Arabia on the initiative of the Saudi Royal family and Saad Hariri, the present Prime Minister of Lebanon, in December 2000. He agreed to avoid involvement in active politics for ten years but he violated this condition from time to time. The political elite cannot create enduring political institutions unless they become fair and transparent in their interaction with the people and fully apply to themselves the principles of equity, fairplay and constitutional and democratic norms. If they seek strength by cultivating a fair and transparent relationship with the people they would not need the blessings of the foreign governments for political ascendancy.
The writer is an independent political and defence analyst.
