Primacy of Constitution

‘Better late than never’ aphorism seemingly has little meaning. The prime minister has belatedly written a letter to the leader of the Opposition suggesting names for consultation on the members of the Election Commission of Pakistan which was the constitutional requirement. But, the modus operandi of the leader of the House may be ultra vires and indeed inconsistent with the rules stipulated in the constitution. The unwarranted ambivalence of the prime minister, driven by his obvious inclination, may not be taken in good stride when constitutional obligation is at stake. Such pursuit is least desirable and indeed regrettable to the core. The undertaking of constitutional imperatives may not be sacrificed at the altar of egoism that may cause self-inflicting maladies of appalling proportion. Tinkering round the edges as afterthought may not suffice on matters of immense importance having direct bearings on democratic politics.

The leader of the Opposition, as anticipated, has rejected the nominations of the members for being devoid of substantive consultation as clearly defined in the constitution. One fails to understand as why the prime minister is placing his personal likes and dislikes above the constitutional requirements when the country requires his total focus without the tinge of detractions. It was strange thinking in the first place when the foreign minister wrote to the leader of the Opposition, evidently on behalf of the prime minister, for the same purpose. It was akin to showing scant regard to the primary law of the land.

The law is deemed as the most sacrosanct documents that must be deemed as such. Why create controversies, even by default, when those may be avoided with little diligence if the political will is there?

Unfortunately, Pakistan’s democracy, comparatively speaking, is not so lucky this time as it has not yet visited even the stuttering start in the real sense notwithstanding that the Opposition parties had decided to favour the parliamentary politics over the street politics after the elections.

The environment though was ideally suitable for agitation politics when the voices of the massive rigging of the elections were reverberating right across the country and beyond. Ordinarily, the ruling party should have seized upon the opportunity to cash in on the offer of the Opposition for its own reasons of legitimacy and acceptability. But, it miserably failed to capitalise on as it seemingly preferred to take on the Opposition upfront.

Undoubtedly, the Opposition was in the mood, and still is, to give the new government and the democracy the chance to deliver. It is still not interested in toppling the incumbent government as the Chairman Bilawal Bhutto has recently stated while addressing the charged gathering of the ‘Karawan-i-Bhutto.’

But, it seems the ruling party’s unabated wrong doings may draw difficult times closer by its own making. The insatiable appetite of the ruling party of getting at the throat of the Opposition may surely adversely impact the performance of the government and resultantly the popularity of the government plummet to the abysmal level as a popular blowback. In this unfortunate political turmoil only the enemies of the democracy wish may be granted through the courtesy of incumbent government gaffes of stomach churning proportion. Prudence with equanimity may guide the rulers instead to save the democracy and the country from the misfortunes those may loom larger if it continues to turn the blind eye to the visible bitter realities. Merely playing to the gallery may lead to the embracing of the complete diminishing return sooner than later. Make no mistake.

The government has already lost eight months and the people are not feeling better off so far as their individual and collectives lives are concerned. The threshold of their resilience is already teetering on the edge due to the killing price hike, and grappling to meet both ends. The unprecedented spike of rate of inflation has drastically reduced their purchasing capacity. Tariff increase in gas and electricity that is likely to be further increased to satisfy IMF for getting the financial support package of reported 12 billion dollars is yet another bad news in the fold. The burgeoning deficit in trade and current accounts has seemingly exposed the incompetence of the policy planners. The economic indicators of the economy show the policy strategists and their political bosses’ feet are stuck on the accelerator and heading to total economic apocalypse unfortunately. The ruling party leadership may honestly undertake introspection as they have not given any comfort to the people and the future prospects may not be promising either in the face of the deteriorating economic situation in perpetuity. The recent State Bank report bears witness to this trend of the economy. The mandarins may huddle together to rectify the situation before it spirals out of control.

The task may become easier if the government takes the Opposition parties on board because political consensus will create the enabling environment to extricate the country from the prevailing political and economic mess that has been choking the country in various forms and manifestations. Ironically, the ruling party leadership is not realising the indispensability of this course of political initiative and therefore the vicious cycle of problems of

all sorts may continue to reinforce the ill-aboding wrought with miseries for the people.

The so-called ‘good intentions’ of the PTI leadership may indeed be paving the way to sort of hell instead of leading to the promised land of bounty.

The period of eight months of the incumbent government may be described as period of tall promises made and broken to the collective chagrin of the nation.

How unfortunate that the ruling party leadership continues to berate the Parliament as it is not in the mood of making it robustly functional to undertake the legislative business destined to correct the inaccuracies in the system for the good of the people and the country? The seethe is unrelenting because the House sessions, whenever sparingly convened, are usually mired in the ugly scenes of cacophonies, boycotts, flying burbs back and forth, use of indecent and unparliamentarily language, slanging between the treasury and Opposition benches. Ironically, the leader of the House’s absence in perpetuity is quite conspicuous and indeed irritating. These manifestations have become norm than exception reflective of the parliamentary morbidity of the ruling party that fails to understand the relevance of Parliament in the democratic dispensation.

The treasury benches’ nonchalance and petulance are embarrassing for the democracy that has reduced the Parliament as an inconsequential entity.

The ruling party may ponder within the prism of common sense as where this attitude will lead them in the final analysis? Even a man of ordinary prudence may predict that the prognosis of such politics will not be helpful to the government in particular. Overwhelming majority of the people is terribly disturbed over this trajectory of political attrition.

Undoubtedly, it is the responsibility of the ruling party to take initiative to create a conducive environment within the Parliament by reaching out to the Opposition benches because Opposition is quintessentially an integral part of the parliamentary democracy. Running the government without the Opposition is impossible because it is perceived as the government in waiting. This irrefutable reality should have been well understood by the PTI leadership much earlier. But it’s treading within the bounds of the same labyrinth and finding no pathways out is understandable as egoism has blurred their vision seemingly beyond redemption. Indeed, formation of government without the cooperation of the Opposition is possible but to run it smoothly and deliver is different matter altogether.

The incumbent democracy is the exceptional case where the Opposition is found eager to extend cooperation to the ruling party but the rulers thumb on the nose at the other side of the political divide is like discounting the democracy and the democratic practices with disdain. The triggering of debate in favour of presidential form of government, rolling back of the 18th Amendment and contesting the rational of the National Finance Award, may be part of the undercover political strategy. The Opposition parties of all hues have questioned the insidious moves with determination to defend the constitution and constitutional rule no matter what.

PPP’s unequivocal commitment to oppose tooth and nail and frustrate any attempt destined to roll back the 18th Amendment may be understood by the naysayers who are probably out there to do the biddings of the anti-democratic forces. PPP chairman and its leadership have always stood up in the way of those who endeavoured to contemplate the undoing of the 18th Amendment with mala fide intentions. The chairman during his recent addresses to the people in the “Karawan-i- Bhutto” had rejected the ongoing political engineering under the garb of accountability while supporting the same across the board.

The accountability should not only be indiscriminate but also be seen to be indiscriminate. But, the underway accountability may fall short of the standards as the voice of the people against it is like proclamation of Divine.

muhammadshaheedi@ yahoo.com