Are we having a meltdown?

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has said that it will be implementing the Supreme Court’s reserved seats verdict, which had declared that the PTI is eligible for its share of reserved seats. The ECP has said that 39 candidates who had been declared as PTI MNAs had shown their affiliation with the embattled party in their nomination papers, and to be a candidate of any party, it is necessary to submit the party ticket and declaration to the returning officer (RO). But in the case of the said MNAs, these documents were not submitted to the ROs; therefore the ROs couldn’t declare them PTI candidates. By most legal analysis, the ECP really has no choice but to implement the top court’s decision in letter and spirit. The ECP’s ‘justification’ for misinterpreting the SC’s bat symbol decision has not been bought by many, and there is mostly consensus that the electoral watchdog should stick to the SC verdict and implement it as per the verdict. The ECP should not have added this clarification in any case because the real issue began due to its mistake.

But, while the ECP is all ready to implement the SC verdict, there are rumours that the government may not follow the SC verdict and will use delaying tactics. This has been denied by PML-N leaders but since the government has filed a review petition, their leadership has not assented to giving the reserved seats to the PTI either. The government still retains its simple majority and has only lost two-thirds majority, prompting the question: why is the government this angry about losing its two-thirds majority? What changes was it planning that needed this majority? The trailer has hardly been pleasant: social media platforms being banned or suspended, an internet firewall, and a controversial defamation bill in Punjab – what to say of the legalisation of breach of privacy by giving powers to the agencies to tap phones. As if this were not enough, in a desperate move following the SC reserved seats verdict, the government had announced it was considering banning the PTI. That rather knee-jerk announcement has since been walked back by some PML-leaders who have tried to cover up giving more nuance to something that should never have been announced with such little thought.

With Chief Minister Punjab Maryam Nawaz lashing out at the judiciary, perhaps the constitutional meltdown spoken of by Defence Minister Khawaja Asif is not that off the mark? We are a country almost perpetually at the edge of a meltdown that usually manages to bring itself back from the brink. But for that to happen, we need cool, sane heads running the show on all sides of the political spectrum. The government has openly talked of dialogue. Unfortunately, the PTI has refused to play ball. This could end up being a bad ride if our politicians don’t get it together – and soon.