The Quaid-e-Azam must have had very good reasons to opt for Parliamentary Democracy as the system of governance in Pakistan. Little did he know or anticipate what a mess his descendants would land this country in after his departure, as has been witnessed in its checkered 68-year history.
Fast forwarding 60 years, the political mix of Pakistan this time had laboured to wrest initiative from the architect of the fourth martial law in the country, and taken control courtesy a defining moment of resistance by Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry the then Chief Justice of Pakistan. The politicians then contrived a seemingly smooth transfer of power from one civilian Government completing a five-year term to another in 2013 following a so-called Charter of Democracy, which turned out to be "you scratch my back, I scratch yours." At the end of the day the power-hungry, rank corrupt and inept politicians yet again look ready to spill the beans embroiled in petty political squabbles rather than galvanising and building a cohesive national narrative.
Mindless of an affront posed by forces inimical to the country's solidarity and stability, a furor was created by Imran Khan over alleged stealing of the 2013 General Elections by Nawaz League as he demanded a probe into polls of 4 National Assembly seats. As a consequence, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq of PML(N) who had been wrongfully de-seated in one of the 4, won back the seat on 11 October 2015, where he had earlier defeated Imran, his Aitchisonian pal, and proved his accusations wrong.
This NA-122 by-election has at best shaken the ruling party out of its lethargy and misplaced confidence of retaining its vote bank in view of a narrowed down winning margin, but served no good to Imran's party as despite fool-proof measures for polls supervision under the armed forces in line with his demands he continues to cry foul, which no one will buy this time. If as alleged by him polling stations of his voters had somehow been shifted, why did he not discover this prior to the polls and have it corrected in the electoral rolls, or else direct his voters accordingly? It is now in his interest to accept defeat with grace.
Parliamentary democracy suffered yet another blow in the process just over two and a half years after a civilian government was voted to power, when the by-election drill saw reinforcement of status quo as both the sitting government and its opposing Tehreek-e-Insaaf fielded filthy rich candidates contemptuously flouting the Code of Electioneering Conduct and electoral expense limits placed by the Election Commission. Imran Khan who had vowed to reform the country's political system fell foul of his own protestations as he chose to grant ticket to a notorious PML(Q) renegade, in preference to his pivotal party loyalists. Having said this, Imran has nevertheless made a point that all is not well with the electoral system, as the Election Commission was unable to enforce its code of conduct; a malady of most state institutions.
This confounded Imran Khan's own avowed ambition of raising selfless political leadership out of talented youth through a transparent process starting with Elections first within his own Tehreek-e-Insaaf, an exercise seldom undertaken diligently by other political parties except Jamaat-e-Islami. He first faltered in awarding tickets to the undeserving during the first round raising a lot of in-party bickering, and then as he sought to take corrective measures to cleanse the party he appointed Justice (r) Wajihuddin an acclaimed former Judge of the Supreme Court who had joined his ranks, to head a probing commission. Imran ended up not merely ignoring his recommendations, which included expelling certain corrupt and opportunist individuals including Aleem Khan his just defeated candidate, but instead sacked the honourable and credible Justice Wajihuddin.
Hafeezullah Niazi a columnist cousin of the Khan who was among the first of his high-headed casualties tells many a tales of Imran's impropriety, which is unfortunate for a person who a whole class of otherwise silent majority had begun to look up to for redemption of their rights, honour and dignity, and who are getting increasingly disillusioned with the manner of his leadership. Imran without doubt is a clean man himself, but so are scores of others in the Pakistani society, and when someone like him eyes leading a Nation, there are other attributes he must attain to merit wearing the mantle. At this point in time, he needs to introspect, rise above himself and overcome his shortcomings. He in the first place needs to know why a number of notable names have left him one by one, and make amends.
As the traditional chant of rigging and stealing of elections reverberated, this time through the person of the cricketer-turned politician, his 16-year-long 'waiting in the wings' finally began to tell upon his nerves as he came close to upsetting the apple cart having won majority in the KPK. He missed by a whisker due largely to in-experience of handling an electoral exercise and what follows, and instead of concentrating on consolidation of his gains by establishing a role model of governance in the KPK, he dissipated his energies in trying to pressure and unsettle the sitting government through agitation in the streets rather than using the forum of the parliament to take it on and force reforms.
All in all, at the level of the State in hindsight, this whole game of by-elections; more so when caused by the whims and fancies of individuals, is a seriously flawed and wasteful exercise in the face of grave security and economic challenges confronting the country, which requires undivided attention and focus by the entire Nation. What we witness instead is a whole array of non-events eating into precious time and the scarce national resources. Legislation if any has further ended up maiming individual freedom and making the legislators prisoners within their own parties who their leadership can gag, terminate or expel in consequence of posing an affront to their so-called code of conduct.
There are serious fault lines in the system of governance and political graduation in Pakistan. This is perhaps the only country in which either the President is merely a nominal head or one with all the powers rendering the Prime Minister as an addendum. The Office of the President, which is supposed to be overseeing Governance as symbol of the State without allegiance to any political party, has most of the time been at the center of intrigues and conspiracies against political opponents, and the governors supposed to be the extension of the presidency in the provinces to facilitate good governance, have invariably been seen interfering in the affairs of the local executive authority.
Despite unpardonable crimes committed by Musharraf during his period of usurpation of power, one has to endorse his requirement of legislators to be at least graduates to merit eligibility since they were required to frame laws, which is not the job of illiterates. But among the first things the politicians did upon assumption of power was to strike it down, which speaks volumes about the literacy rate of parliamentarians in Pakistan.
Ever since getting into the saddle over 7 years ago, the political leadership has shunned holding polls for local bodies, which are supposed to be the nursery for prospective parliamentarians and a pre-requisite for graduation to higher tiers of political leadership on the basis of their performance at the grass roots by attending to the problems and issues of the common man. But the political governments continue to ignore the requirement and instead are happy greasing the palms of their MNAs and MPAs out of municipal funds; which amounts to misappropriation.
Kinship in political hierarchy continues to plague the Nation and delegation of authority has been conspicuous by its absence as the ruling party leadership finds no one fit enough in a country of 180 million people to man several key portfolios except members of their own family. These and scores of other fault lines need to be corrected before Pakistan can dream and deserve to be respected among the comity of Nations.
(The writer is a veteran media professional, analyst of political, social, cultural, Television and film industrial issues. He can be reached at email:[email protected])
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