Parliament standing forlorn from ground realities

ISLAMABAD: The Parliament stands as a forsaken forum in the present tense political situation as against the equally dangerous scenario five years back in 2014.

The government has paid no heed to summoning either the separate sessions of the National Assembly and Senate or a joint sitting of parliament to bring the most burning topic in the confines of the legislature.

Only the opposition parties have filed a requisition to call the Senate. The abandonment of this important democratic body in the context of the significant matter has projected its irrelevance.

It has been speculated more than once that the government is mulling over the idea of calling the parliament, but it has taken too long to arrive at a decision.

The Azadi March is now in its fifth day and may enter a threatening phase after expiry of the two-day deadline if its organisers chose to move ahead towards the areas that have been declared as a prohibited tree by the authorities. Much before the start of the march, Jamiat Ulema-e- Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman had been doing mobilisation for launching the protest.

At the height of the confrontation between the Nawaz Sharif government and the 2014 sit-ins’ sponsors--the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT)--senior Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, who hardly approved any policy of that regime, had come out with the idea of immediate convening of the joint parliamentary session. It was quickly bought by the government, which summoned the joint sitting to discuss the confrontation created by the protest.

Despite the sit-in senior, PTI leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi, although, he along with his other colleagues, had handed his resignations from the National Assembly, had attended the joint sitting. There, he had declared on Sep 3, 2014: “This Parliament is my political Ka’aba. I told PAT leader Allama Tahirul] Qadri’s supporters not to move towards it. We are protesting to save parliament, not to destroy it. I do not command the PTI supporters. I do not lead them. I can request them. The PTI never was and will never be part of any plan to undermine democracy.

I want to be on record that my party opposes the invoking of Article 245. We embarked on this journey after agreeing on four points; 1) our struggle will be democratic; 2) it will be within the realm of the Constitution; 3) our movement will be peaceful; and 4) if any extra-constitutional action is taken--I am referring to martial law--we will condemn and oppose it.”

Inside the joint parliamentary session, all the parliamentary parties sans the PTI had severely condemned the ongoing mayhem and stood behind the ruling coalition led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). The speeches had served as a sign of relief for it for earning the parliamentary support. The PTI had been isolated and singled out for denunciation.

The PPP, which was in the opposition and was attacking most government policies, had extended full support to the government that it kept reminding it in the following years as a major favour to save it from collapse under the pressure of the sit-ins. At the time, the then ruling coalition, joined by the opposition parties, had a clear majority in both the Senate and National Assembly and was comfortable to take up the protest.

At present, the PTI has majority in the National Assembly while it doesn’t have much numerical say in the Senate. But still it has enough numbers to make speeches in the joint session if called now.

Its entire campaign to counter the Azadi March is limited to issuing public statements and taking elaborate security measures.

The public remarks made by Prime Minister Imran Khan and his comrades about the protest are hardly helpful to defuse the situation. Rather, they have been fueling the agitation.

The present parliament has already nothing to show in terms of lawmaking, which, under the Constitution, is its fundamental job. Only the other day, the government issued eight presidential ordinances, which was a record number of such legislation by the Executive in one go. The ruling alliance is incapacitated in lawmaking for having no worthwhile numerical strength in the opposition-dominated Senate. However, it can easily pass ordinary laws in the National Assembly, which it has not done so far.

When no legislation has been done during the past 14 months by parliament, seeking no discussion on the present agitation in the legislature renders the legislature more irrelevant and inconsequential, which is not a good sign for any democracy.