- Sensible U-turns?
Gladly the government did not drag the matter of forming committee chairmen in the House as long as the business about the PAC (Public Accounts Committee) head. Instead of letting the logjam persist for months, this time they took a step back rather quickly. The speaker’s decision to issue production orders for Saad Rafique is also welcome. Such steps have now become known in the local press as ‘positive U-turns’ on part of the PTI government. Perhaps there was a lesson in the PAC deadlock. Pressing an unsustainable position for too long is never a good idea. If anything it only makes the eventual blowback that much more severe.
Besides, PTI finally came to the realisation that getting some legislation through the House was the only way to save face before the public. It has been completely hamstrung on the economic front. And campaign promises of investment, jobs and growth have quickly turned into austerity, inflation and layoffs. Therefore, there’s not much to do now save honour promises that do not need an expansionary fiscal policy, but tabling bills in the National Assembly.
PTI is also slowly getting over the initial victory euphoria and realising that winning the election does not give you a free ticket to bulldoze the opposition altogether. There’s nothing wrong with rooting out, or attempting to root out, corruption. But, in the democratic setting, proof is required before anybody can be apprehended. And the idea that everybody in the opposition would somehow soon be in jail therefore it was no use indulging them clearly did not work out. The opposition, far more experienced than the ruling party, knew just when to close ranks and block the position till PTI simply caved in out of frustration. PTI betrayed a degree of inexperience in its early days. Hopefully it would have learnt the most important lessons by now.