Or, a familiar fall!
Listen to the mustn’ts child. Listen to the don’ts. Listen to the shouldn’ts, the impossible, the won’ts. Listen to the never-haves, then listen close to me – anything can happen, child, anything can be.
–Shel Silverstein
The prime minister’s inaugural address to the parliament after his election was laced with all the right noises: the need for a consensus among all stakeholders on key national issues, eliminating corruption, restructuring of the state-owned enterprises and appointment of individuals of merit as their heads, combating the energy crisis and initiating steps for the revival of the industrial sector in the country.
The most meaningful speech on the floor of the house was made by the head of the Pakhtunknwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) Mahmood Khan Achakzai who pleaded for a ‘soft revolution’ in Pakistan and said that Gen. Musharraf alone should not be punished for the October 12 takeover. Instead, all those who supported him should also be convicted. There was little thumping of desks after that. The reason was obvious: most of the supporters of the general were sitting in the parliament duly elected as members on the tickets issued by the leading political conglomerates. He went on to plead that all those judges who had refused to accept the orders of the dictator should be declared as national heroes and those who had supported him should be condemned. He also advocated for rescinding the licenses of the lawyers who extended support to the dictator. He said those who had supported the cause of the dictators in any manner should be refused entry into the political parties. Little thumping again! He concluded by recommending the constitution of a broad-based fact-finding commission to ascertain the mistakes of the past and suggest a mechanism to rectify them.
Notwithstanding the fact that the newly-anointed champion of democracy was born in the lap of the most demonic of dictators, Zia ul Haq, he should understand that cosmetics like the renaming of the prime minister’s secretariat and the downgrading of the post of the principal secretary to the prime minister will not do. The challenges before the newly-inducted chief executive are monumental with an only remedy: delivery. In the process, he has to most guard against his known propensities of accumulation of power (and money!) and confrontation with other state institutions and stakeholders. These failings had marked his previous two incumbencies in power when he was eager to boot out just about everyone who dared speak a word of wisdom. Understandably, there has been some sobering down over years in exile, but indications are that it may only be a case of hiding of the spots rather than their permanent erasure.
There are three critical issues for the three key institutions of the state: the executive, the judiciary and the accountability arm of the government. In the opposition, PML-N has been pleading vociferously for Gen. Musharraf’s trial under Article 6 of the constitution. Now that they have the government with a comfortable majority and can take decisions without having to compromise with coalition partners, it is to be seen whether such a step is initiated or a compromise preferred over confrontation and Musharraf allowed into exile. There is also the Swiss case which will test the resolve of the new government particularly now that the Supreme Court has given an indication of following it to its logical denouement.
For the judiciary – and particularly in view of its perceived complicity with some political forces leading to their induction into power – the foremost challenge will be whether a commission on the lines of the one set up for NRO implementation is also set up for the Asghar Khan case and what becomes of those individuals who are alleged to have conspired with the intelligence agencies to topple a democratically-elected government and received illicit funds for the purpose. The memo case also beckons for attention. For the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), and for its yet-to-be nominated chairman, the principal challenge will be prosecuting a host of pending cases against the Sharif family including the serious allegations of money-laundering. Additionally, there are numerous outstanding prosecutions involving the two former prime ministers and some ministers of the outgoing government. Will the requirements of law be served, or will a compromise be struck to let bygones be bygones ala a ‘democratic’ NRO.
There are other challenges which will expose the resolve and commitment of the new government. These include the selection of the team from among a highly politicised bureaucracy for which the leadership of PML-N is more to blame than any other political party. The criterion of their choice has traditionally been an uncompromising allegiance to serving their personal interests in preference to any commitment to the constitution, the rule of law or the state. If that remains the preference – and one should know this in a matter of days not weeks – the results may not be any different from their previous two stints. The selection of the NAB chairman and the manner in which the prime minister and his team members may address the requirement of a meaningful consultation with the leader of the opposition would make for an interesting spectacle. It could also be that, in order to at least delay the prospect of taking contentious decisions, they may procrastinate on the induction of the NAB chairman.
One also understands that, in the first batch of ministers likely to be announced by the weekend, there will be no place for the new inductees into the party fold and only the tried and tested confidantes will be sworn in as part of a relatively small cabinet owing to the restriction imposed vide the 18th amendment. This again will expose the likely preferences of the new administration whether they would want to change their governance mode from accumulation to genuine desire for sharing, or they would prefer to stick with the old fault-lines.
This and more are just some of the indicators that would give an insight into the shape of things to come. While hope remains the preferred option of the millions who wait with baited breath for some good to finally come their way, the happenings of the first few weeks and the quality of the team members the new leadership sets out with to undertake a challenging task will determine the extent of relief that can be legitimately expected. Anything can happen, anything can be!
The writer is a political analyst. He can be reached at [email protected]
