Return to the chair

Ayaz Sadiq has become the first man in Pakistan’s history to lose and regain the chair of the speaker of the National Assembly during the tenure of the same government. Sadiq, whose election from NA-122 in Lahore was declared null and void by an election tribunal in August, won that by-poll against the PTI candidate Aleem Khan. His collection of votes to propel him into the speaker’s chair was even more impressive. With the support of all opposition parties except the PTI, he collected a massive 268 votes compared to 31 gained by Shafqat Mahmood, the candidate for the PTI. Both men, in victory and in defeat, were gracious in their remarks to the House. Sadiq complimented the PTI, with which he has had an acrimonious relationship, for taking part in the democratic process while Shafqat Mahmood said he hoped democracy would be strengthened further and the gap between the people and parliament closed over the coming years. Ayaz Sadiq’s victory was of course no surprise. His PML-N holds a simple majority in the National Assembly and there was no suggestion there would be any break away from the party in favour of the PTI candidate. The margin of victory has however been a large one. It should indicate to the PTI that it is becoming increasingly isolated in Pakistan’s politics with no party apparently willing to play along with its line of rigging at every stage of the electoral process. Had there been conviction among other parties that this had happened, more votes may have gone Mahmood’s way. Even erstwhile ally Jamaat-e-Islami apparently broke ranks leaving only Rawalpindi’s Sheikh Rashid to back the PTI.
It is a welcome sign that the process was completed properly and with decorum. From this point on, we hope that the PTI will rest its rigging claims and participate in the much more difficult task of playing the role of a critical and constructive opposition. It is essential that all politicians in parliament, under the guidance of a speaker who has promised to continue from where he left off, focus on governance. We need to avoid further by-elections or waste time on other disputes. With the PML-N halfway through its tenure, it will be watched carefully as it tries to guide the nation further towards the goals it has itself set out for it and which Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has reiterated again and again. It could be argued that the Nawaz government hurriedly put up mega projects without proper thinking and planning under pressure of the PTI tactics and now more time and better planning at conceptual and implementation levels will be done. The support its speaker received in the house should assist it in this process.