Daily Times

In a democratic polity, the opposition is supposed to be a government-in-waiting, with an alternate plan of improving governance and obligated to oppose the policies of the sitting government that it considers inimical to good governance. In playing this role, it is supposed to honour the internationally recognised and established democratic norms while registering its dissent or opposing view on a particular national issue. Parliament is the preferred forum to deliberate on subjects of national importance. Even outside parliament, the political parties, both ruling and opposition, must remain within the confines of the rules of the game and throw opprobrium at each other with a constructive purpose designed to present an honest and unbiased perspective on matters of public concern. Nevertheless, in the backdrop of what happened in parliament during the presentation of the budget, the foregoing propositions seem the dream of an imbecile. The spectacle of parliamentarians throwing fists at each other and displaying their wild side while millions across the country watched in disbelief was simply disgraceful to say the least.

Even more insulting to the public was the remark by the opposition leader, Chaudhry Nisar that what they did in the assembly reflected the public sentiment, which they wanted to register. Well, the public my have been frustrated due to the prevailing situation in the country stemming from a host of inherited internal and external factors beyond the control of the government but they would certainly not like their representatives to pummel the sanctity of parliament and behave like street urchins. It is said that those who resort to violence do so because they suffer from a bankruptcy of ideas and reasons to confront the opponent on an intellectual level and are desperate to conceal their own shortcomings. One has perforce to give credence to this view because the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) as an opposition party has not been able to present an alternate programme or a vision to change the economic profile of the country or the systemic changes that are required to break the vicious circle of politics of graft and entitlement. Their focus has been on grilling the government on unsubstantiated charges of corruption and taking advantage of a power crisis to gain access to the corridors of power.

The most perturbing aspect of the PML-N’s tirade against the government is that they do not even hesitate to tell blatant lies to mislead the masses. The PML-N leader, Mian Nawaz Sharif addressing a public rally recently claimed that when he was in power, Pakistan was in a position to export electricity. That is the biggest lie of all. Not a single MW was added to the national grid during his rule and it is a verifiable reality. He was trying to claim credit for what Ms Benazir Bhutto had done during her second stint as the prime minister. Perhaps, it would be pertinent to quote from a report prepared in 2006 to seek help from Asian Development Bank for power projects. It says, “Pakistan faced a deficit of 1,500 MW that caused forced shut downs. The government embarked on a massive programme of structural reform and a significant change began in 1994 when a new power policy permitted the development of Independent Private Power Producers (IPPs), selling electricity to both WAPDA and KESC under power purchasing agreements (PPAs). The IPP contracting was overseen by the Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB), which is an implementing agency for energy policy. It was set up in 1994 to provide a one-window facility for investors in the power sector. It negotiated, executed and administered agreements with IPPs and provided an interface between IPPs and the government. The IPP policy succeeded in attracting both foreign and local investors into the sector. Resultantly, the power generating capacity outran demand. Over 3,000 MW of private IPP capacity came on stream in 1997 alone.” Everybody knows that the IPPs were launched during Ms Bhutto’s government. It is a shame that a party that could not install even a single electricity-generating unit during its two tenures should be doing politics on this issue. The way Mian Shahbaz Sharif has been exploiting the issue to incite the public against the federal government leading to violent demonstrations in which private and public property worth millions was destroyed, is simply outrageous and unbecoming of a public leader. Encouraging a culture of violence for narrow political gains is a very dangerous game to play as it could impart an impetus to the fissiparous tendencies threatening the unity of the nation.

One probably could not expect a better performance from a party that has a myriad of skeletons in its cupboard. Those include the ignominious attack on the Supreme Court; admitted victimisation of its opponents through institution of false cases, whose ill-effects are still devastating the political landscape of the country; money-laundering binge by its top leadership, and last but not the least, colluding with the establishment to conspire against the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). That was done with a view to scuttle its chances of victory in the elections and introduction of the much talked about envelope journalism (lifafa journalism). One is amazed at their audacity to accuse the PPP of ruthless corruption in their public rallies and promising the moon to the people, despite a proven record of misdeeds of their own.

Our biggest dilemma is that the rightist elements within the country have always played the role of a spoiler. The nexus between the rightists and the establishment firmed up in 1977 with the Pakistan National Alliance’s movement against the PPP, later also joined by Mian Nawaz Sharif, which continued until 1999. It is responsible for allowing the establishment to encroach upon civilian territory and arrogating to itself the role of making and breaking governments during the periods interspersing military rule. That collaboration has repeatedly pushed the country off its cherished path of democracy envisioned by its founding father. The connivance between the rightists and the establishment, which was disrupted after the takeover by General Pervez Musharraf, seems to have been revived. The plan seems to be to keep the PPP bogged down in the survival struggle and not to allow it to concentrate on issues related to governance and improving the economic profile of the country so that people refrain from voting the party into power in the next elections. These machinations are as sinister as the conspiracies of the 1990s.

The writer is a retired diplomat, a freelance columnist and a member of the visiting faculty of the Riphah Institute of Media Sciences, Riphah International University, Islamabad. He can be reached at ashpak10@gmail.com