- The government should prepare some tit-for-tat
The PTI government should realise that it needs the opposition to legislate, and that it has itself got a track record that can have fingers pointed at it in the shape of its years in office in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, where it has completed one full five-year tenure, and is in its sixth year of rule. KP might have given it an indication of how easy it is to be a NAB target when the PPP has questioned its billion-tree plantation claim and asked for a National Accountability Bureau investigation. A PML-N spokeswoman has also backed this demand, and new PTI spokeswoman Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan made a brave attempt at defence by saying that the PML-N would do better to count the money its leaders had looted, but the fact remains that Prime Minister Imran Khan did make a five-billion-sapling claim, and questions about it are legitimate.
Matters become even more complicated for the PTI when it needs the opposition parties to attend a briefing on the National Action Plan as a preliminary to extending the military courts’ jurisdiction over terrorist offences through a constitutional amendment. The first briefing, for parliamentary party heads at the Foreign Office, on March 28, by Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, had to be cancelled, among opposition demands that the briefing be in Parliament, and by the Prime Minister. Though the government has set May 2 for the briefing, it will still not be by the Prime Minister. This refusal has become childish, and is not justified by the opposition’s failure so far to take at his own evaluation.
The PTI obviously feels that ensuring a former PM and a former President have to face corruption proceedings is a great achievement. However, it should not forget that both still have their followers, and it needs their legislators to carry out its own agenda. It may also learn that while out of office, it is almost too easy to make accusations of corruption against those in office. The PTI may be also learning that self-righteousness is not a sufficient defence against accusations of malfeasance, no matter how far-fetched they may be. The government should realise that it has to behave responsibly, like one of the adults in the room, and can no longer indulge in the tactics of opposition. That is the opposition’s job.
