Talk it out
Both the track record and capacity of the PPP government at governance leaves much to be desired. From foreign trade to matters of law and order to the energy crisis, there is a quaintly auto-pilot feel to the way the government goes about things.
But there are some things that it has proved to be excessively efficient at. Evolving consensus and providing safety pressure valves for dissent and outrage to fizzle out of. By passing the buck to the parliament when it came to the issue of the Nato supply routes, it has ensured that the opposition also gets ownership of any possible defence.
A similar attempt has been made on the energy front. The second national energy conference was held in Lahore yesterday. A fitting platform for the opposition PML(N), which despite running the government in the Punjab, has taken to taking out protest marches against the power shortages. Technical conferences, it is assumed, cannot accommodate populist sloganeering, as opposed to rallies, TV shows or even the parliament. When put on the spot, the Leaguers would have to say something. This would ensure the latter come out with an unpopular statement.
The chief minister was present at the conference but both the Punjabi Leagues’ presence was dismal. The failure of the conference to come up with anything has been attributed, by the federal government, to this deficit in quorum.
The moot also rejected the earlier proposal, floated by Q League chief Shujaat Hussain, to settle the circular debt by cutting of the NFC dues to the provinces. Though the veteran leader’s idea was (rightfully) shot down, it was still something tangible. These are precisely the sort of ideas that we need to overcome the problem.
This is a problem that requires holistic solutions. The League would think of itself as the government-in-waiting. It knows, it is presumed, the scale the problem we have on our hands. Would it be tutoring the PPP in the merits of keeping the issue above politics then?
Post-script: the TV newsrooms might have had fun with the lights going out at the conference. The chiragh and the andhera play. Had it not happened, the same channels would be decrying how there is no loadshedding at high-falutin government conferences but none for the masses. Because of its activism, the judiciary has been accused, in the recent past, of making sure the country is ungovernable. The mainstream media comes a certain second….