For any leader it is a great honour to be invited to address the parliament of another country. Such a friendly gesture tends to suggest if he is popular at home, his style of governance is no less admired by the world at large - something the government of Pakistan wants for the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, particularly when he is under attack for the manner he has and continues to handle the aftermath of the failed coup against his government. He is scheduled to address the joint session of our parliament today. There is no question of opposition parties boycotting the ceremonial session; all of them would be there but the Tehreek-e-Insaf. Given its propensity to run afoul of anything perceived as mileage for the PML (N) government, it has at times failed to distinguish between the country's image abroad and mileage for the Sharif government. Despite a request by the Turkish envoy in Islamabad that a boycott of parliamentary session would be misunderstood, the PTI has maintained its earlier decision not to attend and hear the Turkish leader.
The stated reason for the boycott; the PTI parliamentarians would not attend the joint session because it is being hosted by the government of Prime Minister Sharif against whom there is the Panama Leaks case in the Supreme Court. Yes, there is this case before the apex court, but so far Nawaz Sharif has not been adjudged as guilty. It's not the PML (N) meeting they are being asked to attend; it is the joint session of parliament of Pakistan, of which like them Nawaz Sharif is just one member. In 2014, its leader refused to climb down from the container and in the process caused deferment of Chinese President Xi's visit. Then last month he and his party lawmakers stayed away from a joint sitting of the two houses of parliament held to discuss the rising tide of Indian brutalization in Occupied Kashmir, a mindless move front-paged by the Indian media as 'it dented the consensus in Pakistan'. How come PTI leaders like Shah Mehmoud Qureshi, who had held the portfolio of foreign minister in the last government, and Shireen Mazari who in her own right is strategist par excellence, were unable to convince their leader against the boycott?