The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves
The parliament failed to play any role in the resolution of the Panama case issue which led to the disqualification of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. The parliament has continued to neglect vital tasks that would have strengthened it. It would be of little help to bring together representatives of the executive, judiciary and military bureaucracy for an intra-institutional dialogue to make them realise the importance of parliament. Unless political parties decide to give parliament the respect it deserves, none else will.
The parliament was grossly neglected by the PML-N leadership which remained mostly absent from its sittings during the last four years. The parliament did not replace Articles 62 and 63 with the provisions in the original 1973 constitution nor did it introduce suitable amendments in them. The PML-N preferred to get the Panama case resolved through SC instead of reaching an agreement with the parliamentary opposition over the proposed Enquiry Commission’s ToRs. Despite voicing their dissatisfaction with the existing system of accountability the politicians did nothing to improve it. The government went for costly development projects that could win PML-N votes. Had it undertaken low profile projects with capacity to generate large scale jobs and reduce poverty, this would have mobilised the common man against the removal of the Sharif government. As this was not done, there was no spontaneous outburst of public resentment against the removal of Nawaz Sharif.
What one can justifiably expect from judiciary is that it would discourage politicians from taking political issues to courts. . While one can question the inclusion of the ISI and MI in JIT, the decision on the JIT report was taken by none other than the court itself. Unlike the past the NA was not dissolved, the PML-N remained in power and a party stalwart nominated by Sharif was sworn in as the new PM. The SC had already set a precedent by removing Yousuf Raza Gilani, a decision hailed by Nawaz Sharif and his party. Instead of holding an intra-institutional dialogue the political parties would do well set their house in order.
