- The House needs to be improved rather than abused
Imran Khan cursed the Parliament. His statement was rightly condemned not only the National Assembly but also by many who consider democracy the least unsatisfactory system of all practiced by mankind. One does not expect therefore the leader of a mainstream party to discredit the foremost institution in a democratic dispensation. There are still a number of serious flaws in democracy which need to be removed in order to retain the people’s commitment to the system. A national leader is supposed to offer concrete suggestions to improve the system instead of heaping insults on it.
The PML-N has played no small role in denigrating the system. For more than four years Nawaz Sharif and his cabinet members frequently neglected National Assembly sessions. This strengthened the tendency in some among the opposition to seek the resolution of their grievances by recourse to street power instead of taking them up in the National Assembly. Decisions were taken by Sharif without even consulting the federal cabinet. These were implemented after being rubber stamped by a PML-N dominated National Assembly. Finally Supreme Court stepped in by declaring that any decision taken without the cabinet’s confirmation would be null and void in the eyes of law. Instead of curbing the Zia era tendency of municipalising national politics, Nawaz government further strengthened the deviation by allotting development funds to lawmakers thus weakening local governments which constitute the basic tier of democracy. By joining hands with anti-democratic forces like Qadri’s PAT, the PPP too did not strengthen Parliament.
It is scandalous the way fabulous amounts are spent by tribal candidates contesting Senate elections and tens of millions of rupees are expended for winning a provincial or a national assembly seat. This has turned Parliament virtually into a millionaires’ club where middle class candidates have little chance of entry. That this has continued despite a Supreme Court ruling suggesting measures to reduce expenses enhances neither the image of the Election Commission nor Parliament which must legislate to reduce election spending by candidates. The Parliament has to remove its deficiencies in order to be widely respected.
