- A way to shift burden to others
Foreign Minister Qureshi has reaffirmed what the Prime Minister has been saying earlier about his government and the armed forces being on the same page. A persistent disconnect between the two can lead them to work at cross-purposes that bodes well neither for the system nor the country. One hopes the avowed understanding will continue in days to come.
In democracy, the elected government takes decisions on a whole gamut of issues from the economy, security, international relations to peace and war. Important issues are first discussed threadbare in concerned parliamentary subcommittees which also seek inputs from related departments, both civil and military. The formulations prepared by the subcommittees are then debated in Parliament where they are made into laws after necessary improvements. The whole process ensures consensus building leading to well thought out policies and laws. This requires that the government in power has competent and experienced lawmakers. In case this fails to happen, the government is bound to yield its turf to the civil and military bureaucracy.
It was tom-tommed before the elections that the PTI had prepared a competent team over the last two decades and the team had prepared policy guidelines for all fields. As it turned out, the party leadership was ill-prepared to deal with the issues facing the country. The removal of Mr Asad Umar from the cabinet and the recruitment of turncoats from other parties exposed the hollowness of the claims of the PTI having a competent team ready to hit the ground running.
Mr Qureshi has a formidable lists of challenges that require consensus on the part of all stakeholders, of which he specifically mentions two, the government and the Army. The list includes practically all major areas of policy making and governance. There is however a flipside to the ‘consensus’ that cannot be ignored. The government has taken several controversial and damaging decisions in the past, some of which have besmirched its image both at home and abroad, the restrictions on the media being just one. By maintaining that it takes decisions through consensus, it could conveniently shift the burden of its bad decisions to the other partner. This must not be allowed to happen.
