The onset of the rains has also brought back the season of political alliances beginning with the embrace between PML(N) and MQM – the sworn enemies of yesteryears who have suddenly discovered the good in getting together to ‘play the role of a strong opposition while remaining within legal and constitutional limits’ and to ‘carry out a joint struggle’ to solve the problems faced by the nation.
Well, the problems are not new. As a matter of fact, the two parties have either been part of the government over the last three years while these problems were being multiplied, or they have been sitting on the sidelines extending tacit support by citing the fear of toppling the system. PML(N) is also the party that had forced the inclusion of a particularly strange clause in the Charter of Democracy (COD) that no political party would deal with the MQM which was dubbed as a ‘terrorist’ outfit – a clause that was rubbished by the PPP the moment it needed the MQM support. So much for principles!
Again, principles don’t constitute a factor in the making of the alliance between PML(N) and MQM as the political landscape in the country had undergone a paradigm shift after the induction of PML(Q) into the federal government which had all but rendered the getting together of the two parties a foregone conclusion: while PML(N) wanted to bring its political isolation to an end, MQM found little relevance and benefit in continuing to extend support to the PPP government so close to the next elections particularly when the latter was sitting pretty with PML(Q) under its belt. On the other side of the divide, PML(Q) had to secure the future of its political heir-apparent Moonis Elahi while PPP, under pressure from its KP ally, ANP, because of the ongoing ethnic rivalry resulting in scores of deaths every day, was also eyeing some structural changes in Karachi and Hyderabad which, understandably, were not acceptable to MQM. So, principles were consigned to the bin, yet again, to begin another honeymoon of sorts!
What is it about Pakistani politics that makes it so gruesome? More than anything else, it is the people who practise this trade – the politicians. Corrupt to the core, they are grossly rich in polemics like ‘remaining within the legal and constitutional limits’ and promising the moon to the people, but when it comes to acting on these misleading commitments, they score a zero. They have been found wanting repeatedly in delivering on their promises to the people. Neither PML(N) nor MQM are new to the governing dispensations: PML(N) has ruled the country on two occasions in the past and is ruling Pakistan’s largest province even today, while MQM has been part of practically every ruling dispensation since the party was founded back in the eighties. What did they achieve when they held the reigns and what do they intend to do now that they were not able to do during their past stints?
Much against the tide of trends, the time of convenient alliances is over. All the horses in the race are tried and tested. They have done their thing more often than they either deserved to. There is only time for them to be held accountable for the incalculable damage they have done to the country either on their own, or by being complicit while others did it. Just words proclaiming innocence are not going to be sufficient. They have to prove their credentials by way of law and its enshrining spirit and applicability. For example, the ones against whom there are cases pending in courts of law should first move to have their names cleared. Without that, they should stand barred from bringing any further infamy to the country. No NROs, please!
While alliances in the past have been enacted to serve specific purposes and then terminated, one alliance that has only become consistently more wholesome with the passage of time is the alliance for perpetuating corruption. The inherent principle of this alliance is that when one practitioner has the chance to indulge, the other/s look away, even extend unspoken support, awaiting their turn to partake of the savoury. For this, they concoct affable rationales while the loot continues unhindered. All the alliances that may be forged now and in the future by the traditionally defaulting players of the trade would only pave the way for cultivating enhanced sophistication in the art of corruption.
What is being missed out, however, is that, even in these despondent times, the political culture is undergoing a major shift. The people who have suffered indescribably at the hands of these deft practitioners cannot indulge in the luxury of giving them another opportunity to skin them of their miserly leftovers. They have no option but to stand guard to defend their right to live and the remnants of their self-esteem that has been resoundingly compromised by this tribe going around as practitioners of the trade of politics and the stout defenders of an incorrigibly corrupted system. Their time is up as, indeed, their right to survive in the changing environment that demands virtues like honesty, integrity, transparency, credibility and proven delivery. This corrupt tribe of practitioners, the proponents of the status quo, has none of it and it neither qualifies by way of its past performance, nor by way of its stated or unstated intentions.
The writer is a political analyst. He can be reached at [email protected]
