Political parties are a pivot of the democratic system of governance due to their role as architects of public opinion on issues of national importance and ruling the country after winning their franchise. The ruling and opposition parties are considered two sides of the same coin because their ultimate aim is to strengthen the edifice of the state and look after the well-being of those who elect them.
As per internationally recognized democratic norms, they have to have working relations with each other, give space to the opponents, be flexible, exhibit an unswerving commitment to the moral values of the society and peaceful resolution of political disputes if any. Ruling the country by the constitution and law is their foremost obligation.
Regrettably, our political parties have never shown commitment to democratic values and the foregoing parameters. They have practised confrontational politics, have invariably disputed election results, fomented instability and remained focused on destabilizing the incumbent governments. In the process morality and sanity have been the major casualties. As if it was enough the advent of PTI on the political landscape of the country has added the elements of violence and impudence to the existing unenviable political culture.
Khan’s woes will end through the courts of law and dialogue with the rival political parties.
During its rule, PTI failed to have working relations with the opposition parties and instead practised politics of political vendetta by instituting false corruption cases against them. The party stalwarts and workers resorted to violence against opponents as was evident in the TV shows when they got physical with them as well as its workers publicly insulting the rival political leaders. The party pushed the country towards perennial political instability by pulling out of the national assembly and dissolving the provincial assembly of Punjab when Imran Khan was removed from power through a constitutional move.
The party instead resorting to legal means to secure Imran’s release executed its plan to attack military installations and monuments of the martyrs to orchestrate a coup within the Army. However, the army leadership handled the situation very sagaciously to thwart the plan. It was an unprecedented incident of its nature planned and executed by a political party.
The party to secure the release of Imran Khan has been orchestrating violent protests like the one in the November 2024 march on the capital, preceded by two similar attempts which have failed to elicit public support contrary to the claims and expectations of the party. The PTI supporters in the UK have been continuously holding violent protests in front of the residence of Nawaz Sharif during his stay in the UK and have chased and hurled abuses at the Pakistani dignitaries visiting that country including former Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa. They have also held a demonstration against the visiting Army Chief in front of the Pakistan High Commission in London chanting anti-Army slogans.
The founding chairman of the party announced civil disobedience; urged overseas Pakistanis not to send remittances to Pakistan; wrote letters to IMF not to extend loan facility to Pakistan; and lobbied with US legislators to put pressure on their President to ask Pakistan to release Khan; utilized all conceivable international forums to malign Pakistan and its institutions. That is not how a political party is supposed to function. The result of all the foregoing machinations of PTI is that the country now really stands at a crossroads.
Although the party has miserably failed to achieve its objectives through violent and undesirable means its founder refuses to learn from it and continues to maintain anti-Army posture and hurling threats for yet another agitation after Ramadan.
The reality is that PTI was not in a position to pose any serious threat to the existing coalition government because of its success in stabilizing the economy and bringing the inflation down to a single figure which is appreciated and acknowledged by the public at large. People are reluctant to participate in any adventure designed to foment political instability. The other debilitating factor is an internal discord in the party. The party seems in a bit of limbo.
The founder of the party who unto himself is PTI needs to change his strategy of violence, degrading and denigrating the state institutions and their functionaries as well as seeking foreign intervention in the internal affairs of the county. The party must establish its credentials of being a normal political entity to be able to survive and remain relevant to the political landscape of the country.
It is an undeniable reality that Imran Khan enjoys a considerable following among the youth of the country thanks to the incessant propaganda over the years by those who brought him into power and the social media warriors of the party. However, he has miscalculated his popularity and has somehow come to believe that violence and impudence were the real ploys to further the objectives of the party, brow-beat his political opponents as well as bring the establishment under pressure for any conceivable rapprochement or deal.
My considered view as a political analyst is that contrary to his expectations of Imran Khan the establishment is not interested in talking to the party and rightly so. The military leadership has made it abundantly clear several times. What greater proof of this could be than the statement by the COAS that he had not received any letter from Imran Khan and if he got any he would not read it but send it to the Prime Minister? Khan’s woes will end through the courts of law and dialogue with the rival political parties. Sooner he realizes that the better for him and the country. Politics sans morality and sanity is not going to work.
The writer is a former diplomat and freelance columnist.