A moot on a moot point
There was no need for an all parties’ conference – as this very space was used to elucidate some days ago – in the presence of a freely elected parliament. Such moves only serve to undermine the parliament’s sanctity and provide support for a “national consensus” government, itself an allusion to a dressed up version of military rule.
However, the government, in its infinite wisdom, has decided to go ahead with the idea. If one of the reasons for calling an APC was that a smaller group of people will be more easily conducive to a consensus than a grand session of both houses of parliament, it should be noted that 51 leaders – much larger in number than the tipping point of controllability – have already agreed to attend. If the purpose of the APC was representation, that had already been defeated, once leaders like Imran Khan (who has no member in any chamber of legislation, federal or provincial) were included in the guest list; and a smattering of other small parties as well.
A consensus will be difficult to achieve here because the rightist parties that are currently outside the positive framework of the state, seek currency in a hawkish standoff. Yet, some are suggesting that this would be the very basis of an APC’s appeal. A safety valve of sorts, with cathartic value. Get it out of your public discourse’s system and be done with it; it’s not as if the resolutions of earlier joint parliamentary sessions and APCs were followed up on. As it is, the other side has also started to back off. Voices within the US security setup have started questioning Admiral Mike Mullen’s statements; the old good cop/about-to-retire cop routine. Posturing, all of it.
But this does not mean to imply in any way that things are going to go back to being the way they were. The calculus of Pak-US relations has changed irrevocably. The dropping of pretense, especially by congressmen stateside, is bound to ensure things stay that way.
The smoke-and-mirrors approach of the security establishment in the war against terror has been all but called out. But it is as if the requirements of grace and decency have been met by an immovable object. No APC can fix that.