The strength of the opposition defines the strength of a democracy
With the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf announcing Javed Hashmi as its candidate for the post of prime minister, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif will not have the one thing former Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani enjoyed: a unanimous vote of confidence from the House. While the PML-N is situated with an overall majority and has little need to maintain a coalition, the PTI is set to challenge it all the way – even if the coveted post of leader of the opposition is unlikely to go to the PTI chief Imran Khan. This is as the PML-N’s maneuvering to secure a broad based coalition to help form a government in the centre is gathering pace.
The PML-Functional (PML-F) chief Pir Pagara Syed Sibghatullah Shah Rashdi was reported to have agreed to support the PML-N in the centre, while the former Musharraf-era prime minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali has announced his decision to join the PML-N. Jamali’s joining represents Nawaz Sharif being true to his word in saying that “old rivalries have been forgotten.” So has the potential rivalry with the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) which has dropped its early rigging claims and provided guarantees that it will act as a “soft opposition.” Holding the second highest seats in parliament, the PPP is set to nominate Khurshid Shah as opposition leader and win the slot with the aid of its former coalition partners. With the PPP mouthing the soft rhetoric of “letting the PML-N complete 5-years” and “fulfilling the remaining parts of the Charter of Democracy,” the hope that a strong opposition will be available at the centre appear to be tarnished.
The last five years in the parliament were considered a “period of reconciliation” – and some analysts maintain that it was for the better of ‘democracy’ – but it was the so-called reconciliation policy which allowed the rise of the PTI amidst allegations of “compromise” at the centre. Another five years of an opposition standing by and watching the government enact poor policy regimes will not bode well for democracy. While the wish of many analysts that the PTI would form the official opposition shall not come true, the PTI’s decision to field candidates for the slots of PM and speaker suggests that it shall play the “real opposition” in the next assemblies – despite attempts to marginalise its role at the centre. The PPP-led opposition now feels “if the PML-N government completes its 5-year-tenure then no force will be able to even think of derailing democracy.” Perhaps its leadership does have greater wisdom – but no political party insists on “fulfilling constitutional terms” in Britian, from where the Pakistani democratic system was imported. There an opposition forms a shadow cabinet with shadow ministries whom provide public an alternate. It is hoped that if not the PPP, the PTI shall take up this democratic role model and strengthen democracy in a true sense.