Shying away from responsibilities
The present government has been in power for over two years now and yet it has nothing to show for. Instead of digging in and working around the clock to see what ails the country and what their solutions could be, it has been busy in mega projects that serve only a fraction of a fraction of the population, political point scoring and ceding its political authority to other institutions. The lethargic and somewhat savage attitude of the government to handle any issue that comes its way speaks of its political maturity.
In a glaring example of how tardy it has been in its responsibilities, the military high command had to intervene and ask it to fulfil its part of the National Action Plan (NAP) the other day. Ever since a decision was made to take on militants and their ideology, the military under the command of Gen Raheel Sharif has initiated and completed many operations resulting in a reduction of 70 percent in terrorism incidents. However, as they say, the devil lies in details. The real challenge wasn’t killing a bunch of foot soldiers of the TTP, it was in tackling their ideology, and that is a part where civilian setup should have taken a lead. But following its tradition of lethargy, the PML-N government has not taken even a single concrete step in this regard. The only point, out of a 20-point agenda, that was implemented was that of establishing military courts, and that was only possible because the military wanted it so. On tracking and cutting off militants’ sources of funding, stopping hate speech and hate literature, regulating religious seminaries and others, the government appears to be stumped. The government is also at odds with the opposition, traders, businessmen, clerks, teachers, doctors and pretty much everyone else, thus making it hard for others to believe in its ability to run the county’s affairs.
Allowing military to act in day to day governance functions will only lead to ceding political space to military, something that is against the spirit of democracy. Instead of strengthening democracy, what the government is doing is making sure it is doomed. While there is no issue in taking input from military and other intelligence agencies in the matters of national importance, letting them take lead in the matters that fall in the ambit of civilian setup is not the best way to move forward.
