There is palpable despondency manifested in the way political leaderships have been conducting themselves over the last few weeks. This feeling accentuated substantially before the holding of the elections in AJK and has continued since. On the face of it, some political forces represented in the parliament are gearing up to launch a movement against the incumbent government with the primary objective of ensuring free and fair elections that they don’t perceive can be held as long as Mr Zardari is in occupation of the presidency. There is good reason for that, too.
The PPP government, throughout its incumbency, has done pretty little to instil confidence in the minds of its political allies or adversaries. Hidden behind the façade of the politics of ‘reconciliation’ was the proverbial dagger always ready to strike. The duplicitous approach emanated principally from the necessity that, on the one hand, PPP did not have a majority on its own to form a government at the centre while, on the other hand, the very culture of its politics did not allow for any other political force to gain ground. Whether it be the MQM (with serious autocratic problems of its own), or the JUI (overtly eager to be part of any ruling dispensation), the PPP mindset was unwilling to work for forming sustainable political partnerships. Instead, it looked upon all these cohabitations as transitory to ultimately give way to its total and unquestioned domination within all echelons of the government.
The PPP, with its inherent fascist tendencies reflected in the shape of cyclic guidelines emerging from the presidency, had little patience with democratic niceties like independence of state institutions including the judiciary whom it has been consistently confronting since being forced into restoring its independence. It has refused to implement its numerous adjudications and Mr Zardari’s punished friends and cronies have been granted reprieve through presidential pardons. There is a crude and expansive display of the government with little governance which has only resulted in unprecedented corruption, vandalising the state wealth, refusing to constitute a transparent Accountability Bureau and an independent Election Commission and blatantly interfering in the working of state institutions as has been amply reflected in the recently held elections in AJK. The question that arises is that, with its dismal track record, is an independent election at all conceivable under the PPP hegemony?
In addition to it being a disturbing thought, it also casts a long shadow on the prospect of a peaceful transition to the end of the constitutional tenure of the present government. Imran Khan was the first political leader who expressed this fear and started agitating for an independent Election Commission and the compiling of genuine electoral lists as per the NADRA record. He even moved a petition in this regard which is currently sub-judice. Of late, fearing that time was ticking away, and getting ever so close to the next elections, other political forces – those that have been sheltering the corruption and abdication of governance of the PPP concoction for over three years ostensibly to preserve their own citadel of power in Pakistan’s largest province – have come out yelling for the obvious. This is a classic case of having the best of it at both ends: join the loot for as long as you can, then start crying foul!
MQM’s exit from the government may not cast the decisive stone for the time being, but it swells up the movement in the direction of doing some basics for inducting a government that would be truly the people’s choice. This is possible only if a transparent system is developed comprising an independent Election Commission that can operate without fear and interference from the government and error-free electoral lists that would constitute the basis of a free and fair election. Without these essential pre-requisites, the dream of any meaningful change in the country would effectively remain unfulfilled.
There are some allied factors, too, that need to be looked into. The mindset of the ruling PPP is one major contravening factor to the attainment of a conducive environment for a peaceful transition to the next five-year tenure of a democratic government. This mindset has asserted itself repeatedly particularly in the context of blatantly refusing to comply with the Supreme Court injunctions regarding the NRO and its attendant orders. Not only have these directives been repeatedly flouted, the government has also unleashed a spate of adverse propaganda against the judiciary and has even resorted to attempts to curtail its independence and generally cast a negative spell about the apex court. The instances are just too numerous to be cited, but one could refer to the case of the NAB and the crude manner in which the government has tried to guide its working, or the appointment of proven corrupt cronies to important positions so that they would further the PPP agenda.
The reluctance of other state institutions to playing their due constitutional role in having the Supreme Court injunctions implemented is understandable, but the incalculable damage that it may cause to the future of democracy and the state itself must be carefully gauged. This is necessary as Pakistan has reached a dangerous crest in its battle with itself: beyond it is a steep fall and the way back is strewn with the risk of taking difficult decisions, hopefully within the parameters of the constitution. In the event it is not done, out of fear or complicity, the plunge into oblivion requires just one small push.
The writer is a political analyst. He can be reached at [email protected]
