Politicians haven’t mended their ways as such
Politicians are never tired of claiming that they have leant from their past mistakes. This is only partly true. Yes, the government did not use NAB to frame opponents and the opposition did not approach the army for intervention. There was however no shortage of malice and a hunch to discover new shortcuts to get rid of the opponents. The SC order to declare Shahbaz Sharif ineligible for public office was considered by the PPP a God sent opportunity. It used the short period of the Governor’s rule to fish in the troubled waters of Punjab. The PML-N on its part was never tired of issuing calls for early elections. The demands climaxed early last year with Sen Ishaq Dar claiming the government had lost mandate and snap polls were needed to test its legitimacy. Nawaz Sharif sought the initiation of the memo case against Hussain Haqani requesting the SC to “unearth the dreadful conspiracy, which maligned Armed Forces of Pakistan to trade away the sovereignty of the country and to barter away the existence and future of Pakistan”. Shahaz Sharif frequently took recourse to inflammatory language, promising last year to drag Zardari in the streets of Lahore.
Mutual suspicions stood in the way to consensus on a caretaker prime minister. Ch Nisar Ali put up names that he knew would be unacceptable to the PPP for their perceived partiality. His subsequent statements indicated that he wanted only the Election Commission to decide the issue. After Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and Ch Nisar failed to agree, the later gleefully predicted that the parliamentary committee would not be able to resolve the issue. To put the spanner in the works, he chose to address a press conference while the final round of talks was about to start saying that here would be no agreement in the committee. Making no secret of his keenness to send the matter to the ECP, Ch Nisar has put the Commission in an embarrassing situation. If it decides on a PML-N nominee, it would be accused by the other side to be working in collusion with the opposition party.
That the political parties were unable to reach an understanding on the caretaker prime minister in six days is a colossal failure. This indicates that the political leadership still remains intolerant and is incapable of give and take and compromises that are part of the normal democratic culture. The failure would raise uneasy questions. How would this leadership resolve the controversies that divide ethnic groups, social classes, different tiers of society and important institutions inside the country? How would it resolve the controversies raging in the region? Would our leaders simply get up and leave the negotiating table when the national interests demand otherwise?