Benefits none
Political stability has eluded our nation ever since its inception some 68 years ago. The cultural complexities, diversities and regional deprivation have not allowed democracy to flourish. The four military rules had an optimum survival rate of one decade while political governments kept toppling like pins. Our politicians could not agree even on a constitution till 1973. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who finally managed to achieve this landmark by maneuvering all political parties to pass a constitution unanimously, was overthrown by the PNA street agitation that provided the army chief to stage a coup d’état and later to hang him.
Extremism and disregard for law has accentuated excessively since the 1980s in our country. This emanates basically from our corrupt and ineffective administration, police and legal system. Politicians and people of influence take advantage of their weakness to unfairly promote their own interests. To compound our miseries, terrorism has taken its roots deep in our social structure that has destroyed our economy and made our beautiful country scourge of the earth.
Unfortunately, neither our politicians nor our nation has woken up to take cognizance of these hard realities. All of us have failed to unite and join our hands to overcome these menaces. Our political masters are still engaged in their personal feuds and quest for power. What good is that power if the country continues to bleed?
The 1973 Constitution has miraculously survived and remained intact by and large through thick and thin, despite being suspended and mutilated at will by two military dictators. Its spirit of democratic values however, is nowhere to be seen as it has not been accepted in our hearts. As a result, the system is near collapse.
In 2008, democracy was restored for the third (or the fourth time) in our political history. The army had finally arrived at the conclusion that no general could resolve the complexities of our nation by simplistic solutions. The Pakistani people had to be allowed to let their divergent thinking, cultural and linguistic variations and uneven distribution of wealth and resources take its own course and to settle down somewhere. Seven years is a long time for a nation in dire need of galloping to catch up on lost time. The civilians have wasted this time and have failed to rise to the occasion.
General Musharraf surrendered power to the people when he called General Elections in 2008 in the backdrop of the assassination of a former Prime Minister and a popular leader, clandestine political agreements and a faltering economy. The newly installed government somehow completed its five-year term and power was transferred in 2013 to a spectrum of various political parties at the center and in the provinces. Democracy seemed to be slowly moving on track.
Within a few months, however, the system was thrown in disarray and confusion. Subsequent to being sworn in the assemblies, the PTI vociferously expressed its no confidence in the election commission, the judiciary and all state institutions, accusing them of stealing its mandate by systematic rigging in favor of the PML-N. Paradoxically, the PTI held on to the government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where it was elected under the same allegedly conniving administration but submitted their resignations from all other seats.
Since then, continuous debates have raged in the press, television and public forums. The common man is baffled with the presentation of two diametrically opposite views. Each of these issues is intensely propagated with equal conviction by skillful orators and column writers. Should one believe the version of PTI, PML-N or the self-styled experts? Is there a conspiracy to sabotage the system once again?
The common man wonders if there is anyone left in the administration that is sincere to the state in this troubled land of the pure. Is everyone in the judiciary and administration a sellable commodity? Is no one doing his or her job honestly? Did all the election officials collude in a conspiracy to keep the PTI out in the center and maneuver to get the PML-N into power? Had the PTI actually won enough seats to form a government at the centre and the results were manipulated? These are mind boggling questions.
Perhaps the Judicial Commission will come up with some, if not all the answers. But would that put an end to the controversy and the governments will move forward to governance for which the people brought them to power? Or would the nation be subjected to further polarisation and a crippled embattled government.
Politics is about power. The supreme power is vested in the people in a democratic system. The power is exercised directly by them by electing their representatives through free and fair elections. Politics is about achieving and exercising positions of governance for public welfare and development. Our political system has been rendered dysfunctional as the elected leaders have ignored the integral element of public welfare. In addition, most appear to seek power with no commitment or faith in the system but only to safeguard and promote their personal interests.
Convinced of being deprived of its rightful position, the PTI (together with the PAT) embarked on the path of street agitation. The belligerent occupation of the D Chowk for four months, confrontation with the police, efforts to occupy the PTV station and blocking the Parliament failed to bring down the government. Both parties eventually withdrew their sit-ins, dismayed over their political isolation and rising costs of the road show. Plan B of mass rallies, closing down of the major cities and threats of shutting down the whole country also could not yield the desired results of the resignation of the Prime Minister and dismissal of the government. People will have to decide if all this disruption can be inferred as an exercise in futility or did it benefit them or the system in any way.
One has to mull over the consequences of this relentless and fruitless agitation. The PTI chief chose to refuse calling off the dharna and rejected the reported assurance by the COAS for the implementation of the formation of a Judicial Commission announced by the Prime Minister. Only history will be the judge if the PTI chief Imran Khan, at that moment, missed the golden opportunity to emerge as a revolutionary statesman and a positive potent factor in Pakistani politics.
PML-N must be too familiar with the vagrancies of our democracy by now. A two-third majority cannot prevent the overthrow of a democratic elected government. A street agitation by a few thousand demonstrators can throw a majority government at the mercy of the opposition. It can relegate it to a position where the Prime Minister and his Cabinet can be humiliated by the opposition in a televised joint session and forced to submit apologies – just to survive.
An analogy can be drawn with the wiping out of BJP in Delhi polls by the Aam Admi party of Arvind Kejriwal that brought Narendra Modi down to earth after his spectacular victory in the General Elections. Imran Khan may have accomplished something similar with our Prime Minister. There is always a silver lining after a storm. We just have to determine at what cost.
