The PML(N) is within its right to put the government on the mat in the NA and Senate. The opposition in a democracy is in fact supposed to keep the government on its toes by bringing the faults in its policies under the spotlight. One can therefore understand the decision by the PML(N)’s joint parliamentary committee to protest against the government’s failure to implement the parliament’s resolution on an independent commission to probe the Abbottabad fiasco.
It is difficult to conceive of democracy without difference of opinion and institutionalised controversy. The parliamentary system provides the opposition a forum to expose the mistakes committed by the government through debates, by raising points of order and intelligently utilising the question hours. With the media today being freer than ever, the exposure would help the opposition mould public opinion in its favour and provide it an opportunity to win the next election. Using the opportunities to project its policies, the opposition wins public support in an orderly way and without causing any destabilisation. This however requires accommodation from both sides. The ruling coalition has to ensure that the opposition has enough time to express its views and attempts are not made to steamroll it. Further, the majority at the disposal of the ruling coalition must not be used to turn parliament into a rubber stamp. The opposition on the other hand has to avoid the temptation to resort to unruliness which undermines the parliament’s prestige.
One, however, fails to understand what the committee was driving at when it gave Mian Nawaz Sharif the mandate to launch a decisive movement, after the ground has been prepared, to topple the government and not to allow it to complete its tenure. Public gatherings are understandable, all the more so since the elections are approaching soon. What the PML(N) needs to realise that it is a signatory to the CoD which requires the opposition to allow the elected government to complete its tenure.