Daily Times

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) must be applauded for showing zero tolerance towards the menace of corruption, which has been plaguing society. The PTI has displayed its anti-corruption policy in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) where it is the largest party sitting on the treasury benches. On the charges of corruption, the PTI has not only expelled two ministers from its coalition partner, Aftab Sherpao’s Qaumi Watan Party (QWP), from the provincial government, the PTI has also ended its alliance with the QWP. These are courageous steps that the PTI has taken. The PTI has also removed its own minister on account of holding a fake degree, though after the verdict of the Supreme Court (SC).

By taking action against corrupt practices by sitting ministers belonging to its coalition partner, the PTI has made its government vulnerable to being ousted by the PML-N, sitting on the opposition benches of the KP Assembly. In Pakistani politics, it is a common practice that the members of a minor coalition partner, when they have moved on to become ministers, get a free hand to indulge in shady practices because they know that the major coalition partner of their political party can neither remove them nor can it risk ending the coalition. This is because they know that their accountability may cost the main party the government. Blackmailing is a norm in the Pakistani polity. The PTI is the first party to have knocked that norm out of politics; it has refused to be blackmailed on the point of losing its government in KP if the malevolence of the ministers from the QWP is held accountable.

No doubt, by taking such a praiseworthy step, the PTI has not only risked the life of its own provincial government but has also set an example for others to follow. The PTI has raised the quality standard for running any government. This anti-corruption step may be considered the first major achievement of any political party that contested the May 2013 elections. In the elections, the war on corruption was the electoral manifesto of all political contestants but the PTI is the first party to materialise that slogan. Secondly, this anti-corruption step is bound to enrich its curriculum vitae before it claims any share in the Centre through the next general elections. Thirdly, the PTI’s anti-corruption step indicates that the party is committed to discouraging the corruption trend from the top first. Fourth, at the same time, the PTI’s anti-corruption step is bound to doom the political future of the QWP. Last but not least, this move has aired the message that there is a risk in becoming the coalition partner of the PTI and violating probity simultaneously.

By daring to take this anti-corruption step, the PTI has proved that it is serious in implementing the agenda that it announced during the election campaign. It is the norm here that political parties make promises to the voters but later on distance themselves from those promises under the pretext of political compulsions. Such deception is considered normal. However, the PTI has broken these shackles and has reaffirmed its pre-election anti-corruption stance. The PTI has proved that it is not a party that will compromise on the basic principles it professed during the last election campaign. By meeting one of its electoral pledges, the PTI has shown to its voters that the party will also deliver on its other electoral pledges.

The PML-N, which is running the government at the Centre, has shown magnanimity by not allowing its provincial branch to realign itself with other political parties against the PTI to cash in on the opening to form its own provincial government instead. The PML-N could have indulged in ‘make-and-break’ to destabilise the government of the PTI. This act of tolerance showed by the PML-N is also praiseworthy and new, at least in Pakistan’s recent political history, which is otherwise rife with intrigues and machinations. Some people may argue that it is the astuteness of the PML-N not to capitalise on this opportunity because KP is elbow-deep in terrorism and the PML-N wants the PTI to grapple with the ugly problem. However, as no one can read anyone’s real intentions, at face value, the PML-N should be praised for its democratic attitude to respect the electoral mandate of the largest political party of KP, the PTI.

In short, in the recent history of Pakistan, this is the first time that a sitting government in any province (or even at the Centre) has dared ask its coalition partners to come clean on corruption. Otherwise, Pakistan’s political history is full of tolerance for corruption. This is the first time that a sitting government in any province (or even at the Centre) has expelled two sitting ministers from the government on charges of corruption. Otherwise, Pakistan’s political history is full of compromises and concessions. This is the first time that a sitting government in any province (or even at the Centre) has risked the life of its government by not only expelling two sitting ministers of its coalition partner from the government but has also ended the coalition. Otherwise, Pakistan’s political history is full of increasing the number of coalition partners instead of reducing them.

The PTI must have been disappointed at its performance at the national level in the May 2013 elections. In the governance of KP, the PTI has a chance to prove its governing worth to the masses that are fed up with corruption. The anti-corruption steps of the PTI are bound to make it more relevant to the national political mainstream in the next elections. Other political parties will have to struggle more to outperform the PTI at least on the anti-corruption front.

The writer is a freelance columnist and can be reached at qaisarrashid@yahoo.com