Taking state institutions hostage
The trappings of democracy are ostensibly intact. Supposedly there is a free media, the courts are independent, the parliament is functioning and the right to free movement is by and large respected.
Prima facie, the PTI (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf) chief Imran Khan’s claim that Prime Minister Sharif is bypassing state institutions, and in the process destroying them, seems exaggerated. But if you read the small print in the backdrop of the PML-N government’s style of governance, there seems to be a kernel of truth in Khan’s not-so-infrequent diatribes.
Take the case of the National Assembly speaker Ayaz Sadiq. He has clearly shown a partisan bent by withholding references filed against Nawaz Sharif. But at the same time he sent similar references against Imran Khan and his secretary general Jahangir Tareen to the ECP.
When Imran Khan decided to make one of his rare appearances in the NA to lodge his protest personally the speaker conveniently absented himself from the House. Otherwise a perfect gentleman, Ayaz Sadiq’s ostrich-like attitude has neither served him nor the ruling party well.
It has inexorably damaged his image as the custodian of the House. On Thursday, protesting against the speaker’s discriminatory behaviour, PTI, PPP, JI, ANP and AML jointly walked out from the parliament. Unwittingly the speaker, by his recalcitrant stance, has helped the opposition unite against his masters.
Ayaz Sadiq’ predecessor Fehmida Mirza rightly pointed out, while commenting on his partisan attitude in a newspaper interview, that she worked according to the formula: let the minority have its say while letting the majority have its way. In the process she gave more time to the opposition members to vent their views in the assembly, she claimed.
According to her, “once the speaker takes the oath of office –and it is preferable that they should resign from the membership of their party – it is expected that they should run the House in a neutral manner.” Ayaz Sadiq, notwithstanding his personal feud with Imran Khan, must pay heed.
While the PTI chief says that he doesn’t consider Ayaz Sadiq the speaker anymore, the firebrand Saad Rafique thinks that Khan should not be taken seriously. Notwithstanding the prime minister and his teams’ counter-narrative, there are some serious issues concerning the manner in which the ruling party is running democracy. They need to be addressed, rather than swept under the carpet.
The prime minister, by virtue of his foot dragging during the past five months, has effectively filibustered the Panama leaks issue involving his family. Admittedly the opposition is bent upon making it Sharifs’ bête noire. Nevertheless the ruling party has successfully sabotaged its move for Sharif specific TORs (terms of reference) for a proposed judicial commission to probe Panamagate.
In the process of plugging any leaks in the ruling party’s ship, state institutions are being compromised with impunity. Take the case of parliamentary committees that are meant to keep an effective check on the executive’s excesses.
The chairman of the National Assembly’s standing committee on finance, Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh, cut a sorry figure last Thursday after refusing to facilitate a briefing by the ministry of finance and FBR on Panama leaks.
Similarly the Public Accounts Committee headed by leader of the opposition in the NA Syed Khursheed Shah, convened on the same day also, could not make any headway owing to no show by key stakeholders.
Shah, while postponing the meeting, bitterly complained that the State Bank of Pakistan governor, and heads of FIA (federal investigation agency), SECP (security and exchange commission) and the foreign affairs ministry deliberately absented themselves from the proceedings despite being given adequate notice.
While Imran Khan is continuing with his somewhat single dimensional crusade against the Sharifs, the ruling party through its brute majority is cynically bent upon running the affairs of the state as it pleases. Perhaps the only check on its excesses is the military.
The army chief, now almost at the end of his tether, perhaps is no longer considered a threat. Soon the process of selecting his successor will start.
In the meanwhile the system of checks and balances so essential for democracy is perceptibly collapsing. Sharif’s proclivity towards authoritarianism that ended prematurely owing to general Musharraf’s intervention in October 1999 has now taken a different form.
The trappings of democracy are ostensibly intact. Supposedly there is a free media, the courts are independent, the parliament is functioning and the right to free movement is by and large respected.
However most of the state institutions so vital for transparency have been packed with handpicked cronies or favourites who act as willing tools of the ruling elite. What Sharif could not achieve in his previous tenure by declaring himself as ‘Amir ul Momineen’ (leader of the faithful) has now been accomplished through subtle tinkering with these institutions.
Take the case of the financial institutions including the State Bank of Pakistan. Instead of performing their regulatory functions properly they have become an appendage of the finance ministry where the finance minister jealously guards his turf. Hence it is no surprise when heads of these institutions refuse to be answerable to the parliament.
In the meanwhile Sharif is stomping all over the country trying to appear prime ministerial but at the same time taking jibes at his nemesis the Khan. Portraying himself as an economic messiah he paints the opposition as those who want to push the country ‘back to the age of darkness.’
In the process vital statistics like precipitous decline in exports, foreign remittances, and negligible FDI (foreign direct investment) are conveniently ignored. In the ruling party’s obsession to win the 2018 elections a lot of corners are being cut
Notwithstanding the chest thumping the jury is still out on what has been achieved on the economic front by the PML-N government. Too much credit is taken by the government for the CPEC’s (China Pakistan Economic Corridor) potentially $47 billion investment, as if it were Sharif specific rather than Pakistan specific.
In the process vital statistics like precipitous decline in exports, foreign remittances, and negligible FDI (foreign direct investment) are conveniently ignored. In the ruling party’s obsession to win the 2018 elections a lot of corners are being cut.
Take the case of the so-called circular debt owed to private power producers. After being paid in one go when the PML-N assumed power three years ago it has ballooned again to almost twice it was in 2013. Similarly foreign debt has swelled to alarming proportions.
Unsurprisingly however, the GDP growth remains stubbornly low. It is too inadequate to have a handle on poverty.
Despite these inedible facts the media is expected to parrot the ‘sabb achha hai’ (all is well) mantra. It is another matter that a number of senior media persons posing as independent analysts and anchors are enjoying cushy jobs handed down by the government.
While it is difficult to condone the tactics used by the Khan and his cohorts’ quixotic crusade against the Sharifs, there is certainly a method in his madness. We are alarmingly moving towards an authoritarian non-transparent system — ironically all in the name of democracy. Perhaps the Khan is unwittingly, albeit unsuccessfully, trying to put a brake on it.
