Daily Times

The process Senate elections were completed yesterday with the oath taking of newly elected senators and subsequent elections of the Chairperson and the Deputy Chairperson of the upper house of the parliament. This process has been at the centre of a multitude of conspiracy theories since last at least one year. Even in its conclusive part, Senate elections invited controversy. For some it was the defeat of democracy, for others it was success of the smartest.

On the face of it, nothing non-democratic was evident in the process. Political parties supported their nominees to become senators, and then a legitimate race ensued to grab the two highest positions of the house, i.e., Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson. Through the legitimate democratic process, the party that succeeds in securing majority of votes wins the top slots for its candidate(s). Since none of the parties had simple majority, they had to make uncomfortable alliances. But practicing the ‘art of possible’ what political parties do in electoral races. If a party loses despite having largest number of seats – but not simple majority – it can’t cry itself hoarse screaming conspiracy.

But, the devil as they say is always in the details. Remember PMLN dissidents from Balochistan? The ones who managed to bring regime change in their province with little encouragement from the invisible powers? They managed to make PPP and PTI hostage and earned the top slot for themselves. This appears to be the re-emergence of the pattern introduced by Generals Zia and Musharraf whereby the deep state would use a comparatively smaller party – MQM at that time – in order to disrupt and manipulate the decision making process in parliament and even in the Sindh Assembly too.

The objective may have been the similar but the strategy has changed. Instead of organizing political proxies in one single party, this time ‘encouragement’ has been used to keep them ‘independent’ as such a status allows the proxy group to work with a lot more flexibility, in different situations, towards different directions in the face of different kinds of ‘challenges’ that the political parties (i.e., yesterday’s proxies, today’s rogue elements) may pose for the permanent but invisible powers.

Senate’s largest party was not able to get the top position of the house. PPP proved to the powers-that-be that it is indeed capable of ‘delivering’ the desirable results

Such groups of independents can be used as needed, to dictate the behaviour of bigger parties without directly dealing with them. A small demonstration of this has been made in yesterday’s election in Senate. That this group has the executive control in Balochistan, and sway in the provincial legislature, is the added bonus, which could prove an asset in the times of CPEC and uprooting the insurgency from the province.

But what did the two comparatively bigger parties – PPP and PTI – got by throwing their weight behind proxies? PPP proved to the powers that it is indeed capable of ‘delivering’ the desirable results, hence is reliable for bigger tasks. But in all that enthusiasm, PPP got itself demoted from a party with a credible Senate chair to a party with a second line member in the number-two slot. On the flip side though, PPP has managed to have one of the two highest slots, despite losing biggest number of seats compared to its position in 2015.

After the ‘accidental leak’ of the overtly ‘off the record’ briefing the other day, the message that was to be delivered to Nawaz and his vocal, daunting daughter, was completed with the results of yesterday’s election in the Senate – you can make offensive speeches and win these little elections, but remember, you will not be allowed to grow bigger than your size by translating your election victories into establishing your control over the legislative and executive power. Period.

In nutshell, Senate’s largest party was not able to get the top position of the house. The biggest loser of this month’s mass retirements from Senate was able to get one of the two top positions. The third largest party of the house was not able to field its candidates for any of the top two positions.

On the democracy gauge, which party stood at which side of the history, is a bit confusing. PMLN is trying to appear as the sole flag bearer of democracy. But when PMLN leaders were speaking to media last night after their party’s defeat in Senate, they were singing praises of their candidate as a great constitutionalist and democrat. Those who are familiar with our political history, nothing could be more ironic. Lest we forget, PMLN’s candidate for Senate Chairperson position, however senior and experienced he might be, was undoubtedly protégé of Pakistan’s most vicious military dictator.

PPP that usually claims the mantle of Pakistan’s biggest and major mainstream party to lead the resistance against military dictators and political interference of the deep state (although on both counts, this party has a checkered history), appeared to be kowtowing the invisible powers by supporting their proxy for the top position in Senate. PPP’s anti-establishment credentials have diluted to such an extent that there is hardly any possibility of repair.

PTI with its most hackneyed leitmotif – the slogans of anti-corruption and ridding the country of the corrupt – was seen voting for the candidate of a party it has been incessantly snubbing and shaming for being corrupt. Umpires indeed give very difficult tasks sometimes!

What a great royal mess Pakistan’s democracy project is!

Published in Daily Times, March 13^th 2018.