Democracy under stress

Come September and the Imran-Qadri-Rasheed trio is at it again. Inciting people while spewing venom against the prime minister, the three promised to overthrow his government by any means.

If the language used by them in Sunday’s rallies is an indicator, they should be kept far from the mansions of power. Listening to their pitiable harangues, one was tempted to think that, whatever their foibles, the Sharif brothers still come out as normal people in comparison to their three rabble-rousing challengers.

Disappointed by the TV networks’ obsession with the protest marches, the viewers were frequently looking for some sane alternative on the box. Almost anything was more palatable than the incessant coverage of the protest rallies being used to hurl threats to unseat Nawaz Sharif in the name of accountability. The three are convinced that, failing that, the PML-N will get another term in Punjab and at the centre.

This is a perilous course because a confrontation that involves marches to Raiwind or Islamabad in the coming months can stir enough trouble to raise the possibility of the third umpire taking control of the situation.

It is not difficult to understand Shaikh Rasheed’s motive in maligning Nawaz Sharif. His critique is based more on a desire of personal vendetta than offering any alternative for better governance. He has nothing much to lose other than his one seat if the democratic order is paralysed.

The Canada-based revolutionary cleric seems confused about what he hopes to gain from street agitation. He too lost balance by entreating to the sipah salaar to get justice for his supporters killed by the police in 2014. Qadri may be justified in claiming that the government has obstructed the judicial process to protect those involved in the Model Town tragedy. But the PAT chief should also explain why his mission to seek punishment for the killers is always a seasonal activity timed with Imran’s attempts to find shortcuts to the PM House.

As for the PTI leader, he surely deserves a trophy for duplicitous behaviour, ruling one province under the democratic system while reviling the same system elsewhere. He must realise that all previous movements to undermine elected governments ended in military rule. If Imran does not understand the dynamic of street agitation, then he does not deserve to lead this country. And if he does understand, then he is on a suicidal path that too makes him unfit to be a durable leader.

All this is not to deny that the Nawaz government is inept to the core. It is not the most corrupt because that position unquestionably goes to the Zardari-led order that continues to ravage one of the provinces after five years of uninterrupted plunder at the centre. It was, therefore, amusing to see Latif Khosa standing on his toes, next to Imran to pledge support to the anti-Nawaz march.

The ordinary citizen is losing hope while the political class is brazenly engaged in fooling him with more false promises. The state having abdicated its responsibility to provide primary health and education services, the common man is at the mercy of profit-hungry syndicates running private schools and clinics. A frenzy to cordon off entire areas with containers is adding as much to his misery as the tendency to occupy crucial traffic arteries in the name of protest.

All this tamasha goes on while the country’s economic performance is touching new lows. The government has failed to acknowledge that it cannot push the country into greater indebtedness without dire consequences. The meaning of public finance being a sacred trust is obviously lost on the rulers. This is where the opposition needs to take the ruling team to task, not to launch marches against offshore companies which many believe is a wild goose chase, leading nowhere other than disrupting normal life or economic activity.

The government’s leading spokesmen too can do a great favour to the nation by taking it easy on spin. Their claims about ‘game changers’ and ‘fate changers’ mean zilch against a steady stream of news about falling exports, investment and remittances, and the consequences that is bound to have on the country’s capacity to service its spiralling debt.

The prime minister can do better than promising an end to loadshedding by 2018. He can lend credibility to that claim by ordering an end to power cuts at midnight that prevent people from getting normal sleep.

The government can also become more credible by fulfilling its responsibility to name the next army chief, an appointment that in principle had to be made by August 29 or three months prior to the present chief’s retirement. Further delay in the matter is likely to lead to more speculation.

Email: saeed.saeedk@gmail.com