EDITORIAL: It was one of those revelations that everybody already pretty much knew about yet still came across as something of a bombshell. And even though Maulana Fazlur Rehman later diluted his own charge by correcting it – that Gen Faiz Hameed (retd) was not, in fact, present in the meeting he alluded to in his shock interview – nobody really needed any confirmation that the no-confidence motion against the Imran Khan government did indeed have the so-called establishment’s fingerprints all over it. Yet, while much all this once again calls for cleansing the country’s politics of all outside interference, doesn’t it also cry out for some soul searching among the political elite themselves?
Was the Maulana himself, for example, really utterly helpless as he was allegedly ordered to spearhead the no-confidence motion against the administration he never stopped criticising as illegitimate – and to oust which he led a ‘long march’ to Islamabad – and then conveniently gulped all the privilege that came with the PDM (Pakistan Democratic Movement) government? And while our champions of democracy – especially those belonging to the party that the establishment accommodated last time but not this time – are bent upon digging old truths out of their graves, would they also care to explain why some of its staunchest anti-establishment lieutenants once happily lined up to form a dictator’s King’s Party when democratic leaders of the time were forced into exile?
It is, of course, as true as it is unacceptable that the establishment pulls the strings from behind the scenes. But isn’t it equally true that our political class, top to bottom, has at one time or another endorsed and benefitted from this pattern? Don’t they rob themselves of credibility, and the people of the truth, each time they put on a different mask and align with a different party; mostly the one that can help propel them to power and ministries for a few more years?
Truth be told, the ordinary people of this country have both the establishment and their own political representatives to blame for this mess. While it should and does matter to them that a civilian government was sent home through a constitutional process that was remote controlled in a blatantly unconstitutional manner, they are far more concerned about running their kitchens and keeping their children in school, as they should be. And now, after a general election that was supposed to deliver a popular government that would steer the country out of its many crises, they only have more polarisation, more volatility, more uncertainty and perhaps more economic hardships to deal with; all for no fault of their own.
Truth and reconciliation, the new buzzwords in Pakistan’s torn political landscape, are only possible when truth comes first. So, let the process of healing start with the politicians coming out with the truth about themselves.
Perhaps, there is no better way to move forward than the people’s representatives making a clean breast of it, accepting how they compromised the interests of the people, and working together for a better future under a more secure policy. That would also keep unwelcome influences at arm’s length.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024