Three major parties have cried foul at the Senate election results; not without reason, though. In Punjab, the ruling PML-N's stronghold, despite being short of the necessary number of votes PTI's Chaudhry Sarwar has won. Even the PPP with just five MPAs in the provincial assembly managed to bag 18 votes, apparently, at the expense of the ruling party's Zubair Gul. In KP, the PTI had expected - on the basis of its numerical strength - to win six seats and ended up losing one. And the two candidates it backed, JUI(S) leader Maulana Samiul Haq and Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli of the Qaumi Watan Party, lost badly. The MQM was looking to secure three seats, but got just one.
The PML-N 'Quaid' Mian Nawaz Sharif is upset over the defeat of Zubair Gul, a close friend from London who is said to look after his family's affairs there. He has set-up a five-member committee to establish the identity of at least 24 MPAs suspected of voting for the two opposition parties' candidates. Imran Khan is annoyed over the outcome in KP. He says he has information votes were purchased for up to Rs 40 million. He has asked Chief Minister Pervez Khattak to take disciplinary action against the MPAs who did not vote for the candidates fielded by the party or the ones it supported. MQM leader Farooq Sattar blames his party's losses on internal divisions, and to a greater degree on the PPP - which won more seats than its projected share - accusing it of horse-trading. The loss of one party has turned into another party's gain. The PPP has emerged as the second largest party winning 10 seats from Sindh and two from KP where it has only six MPAs. However, it claims to have been helped by the JUI-F with its 16 MPAs. Which makes it difficult to figure out how the PML-N, also having 16 members in the assembly, secured two Senate seats from that province in spite of the JUI-F having switched sides.
Clearly, many of the legislators voted against party line. In some instances, the reason could be disgruntlement with party policies, but for most of those who violated a democratic principle the lure of money on offer proved to be too strong to resist. There is a word for it: corruption. It is not something new or surprising in this country, though. Corruption has been made quite acceptable, in fact, worth fighting for by the power elites. A few days ago, bureaucrats in Punjab were up in arms against the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) because one of their brother officers was arrested on a corruption charge for which the anti-corruption watchdog says it has ample proof. Earlier, the province's Chief Minister had reacted angrily on being summoned by NAB in connection with investigations into allegations of corruption in 56 public limited companies established by his government. In Sindh also the government has not taken it kindly to NAB action against some of its bigwigs.
The PML-N Quaid, disqualified for wrongdoing, is facing along with his children accountability in the Panama Papers mega corruption scandal. Rather than provide the apex court the trail of the money with which the family purchased the properties in question, he has been on a vilification campaign against the judiciary. He is busy rabble rousing using the untenable argument that holding an elected leader to account for corruption amounts to violating the sanctity of vote. In other words, he is saying since he won majority of votes, he is above the laws of the land. And in this he is unashamedly supported by a section of the commentariat - mostly beneficiaries of the system of patronages Mian Sahib carefully laid out over the long years in power both in Punjab and at the Centre.
He and his apologists have spun a fiction around the case, claiming he is victim of a conspiracy hatched by the military and that the judiciary is complicit in it. Indeed, the military in this country has committed many acts of villainy in the past, and at present too is believed to have encroached upon civilian policy-making space. But no amount of finger pointing can change that, only good governance can. The fact is that the Panama Papers revelations emanated from Germany-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. No one in any other country has challenged their veracity. On the contrary, in several countries a number of personages, including prime minister of Iceland and CEOs of various corporate entities, have stepped down because of the Panama Papers. Here it's been the other way round. Mian Sahib dug in his heels even after his disqualification. Instead of proving his innocence the accused has kept hurling accusations at the judiciary. If that is not bad enough, in so doing he has the backing of some self-styled liberals and democrats. They are bent upon seeing this country remain a kleptocracy rather than become a genuine democracy.
Considering that Nawaz Sharif and family have failed to come up with any evidence in their defence which could stand legal scrutiny in the apex court or in a NAB accountability court currently hearing corruption reference against them, no matter what they do their fate is written on the wall. But the democratic project will not progress until and unless the accountability institutions are strong enough to withstand pressure from high on. To that end, the political class needs to clean up its act. The one good result of the Panamagate is that it has created an environment in which NAB feels freer to carry out its functions. It has opened all the long pending corruption cases involving politicians from ruling and opposition parties, bureaucrats, as well as three former senior army officers, including two generals. Nonetheless, things will change for the better only if and when all the other institutions, especially the ones who refused to do their duty in the Panama Papers case, start acting in the public interest rather than that of their political bosses.
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