It has become a norm in the recent years that whenever the executive or the government confronts a serious issue or problem, it either requests the supreme court to intervene or leaves the problem on the back burner. Successive requests to the Supreme Court indicate weakness and indecisiveness of the executive. It is not only the incumbents. Previous governments have done the same. The executive creates room for the judiciary to intervene. Why can the government not take any action on its own?
A prime minister is a chief executive. All investigative and law enforcement agencies work under him. There is a significant disorder in the higher echelons of the executive branch of the government; primarily, the cabinet. Internal rifts in the cabinet proceedings and unprofessional statements by ministers portray the PTI government as inexperienced and unprofessional. Another problem that has added to the woes of the ruling party is the battle between the elected and non-elected members in the cabinet. The elected believe that we represent a constituency and have given blood to the party and its ideology and in the case of failure, we will face the wrath of the people and not them (non-elected).
Cabinet proceedings should be professional and the prime minister should follow the cabinet’s decisions for their timely implementation. The governance in the 21st century is embedded in technology and efficiency. Unfortunately, the bulk of Pakistan’s governance infrastructure is outdated and ineffective. A majority of decisions are not implemented due to bureaucratic red tapping and lack of efficient governance system. The majority of the relief efforts of the government do not reach the masses.
The dream of parliamentary supremacy is in the doldrums
The bureaucracy is struggling with NAB’s draconian laws. Government employees have shown serious reservations on the working mechanism of the NAB. Civil service and business community are of the view that the NAB laws are in contradiction with the fundamental rights of the citizens guaranteed by the constitution. There is a consensus among the major stakeholders that current NAB law is a major hindrance in the smooth functioning of the government machinery.
The PTI-led government is indecisive. Initially, they wanted to amend the NAB law but over time, the issue has been placed on the back burner. Prime Minister does not pay heed to the parliamentary proceedings. Instead of fixing the system, his team is incessantly blaming the past governments for all ills suffered by the system. It is the third year of the ruling party in power, but the masses are still waiting for pragmatic steps, which can tackle issues like unemployment, rising inflation, rotten health system and economic inequality.
The dream of parliamentary supremacy is in the doldrums. Debates in both houses of the parliament do not highlight common people’s problems. Government representatives and the opposition uses the top institution for political point-scoring and ordinary gossip. Parliament is the supreme institution in the country. It is the voice of 200 million people. Ironically, the government functionaries do not pay heed to the parliamentary proceedings because they know the power of their appointment and removal lies somewhere else. In the two years of its tenure, Prime Minister has not apprised parliament of a single major policymaking decision, be it related to the economy or foreign policy or national security.
The post of defence minister has become redundant. In theory, the defence minister should appraise the parliament about the tense situation on Line of Control and also Durand Line. Why does the defence minister not pay a visit to the Line of Control? The government ministers are powerless and clueless. The minister of Maritime Affairs has become the minister for Accountability of PPPP. What the minister has forgotten is that his government has created a full-fledged post of advisor on accountability. The advisor on accountability is reaping the benefits of a full-time federal minister from the national exchequer. But unfortunately, both the law minister and accountability czar have wasted two years on trying to prove Honorable Justice Isa of Supreme Court guilty. Instead of introducing reforms in the Law Division, the law minister diverted all his energies towards Justice Isa case. But the government had failed to realise that both the victory and defeat in the Justice Isa case will be detrimental for its popularity. The victory will ignite the lawyer’s movement and the defeat can trap the government in its reference. A hint of it was given by the honourable Justice Maqbool Baqar of the Supreme Court during the proceedings of the Justice Isa case, he remarked that in the past elected government was sent packing by the appellate court on charges of spying on the superior judiciary. Furthermore, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah questioned the legitimacy of the Asset Recovery Unit (ARU).
PTI is losing popularity. The state of affairs has never been in such disarray. All of their promises are in shatters. Not a single penny has been recovered. The economy is crippling, inflation is rising, unemployment is touching skies and people are desperately waiting for relief. Once again, the experiment failed and the laboratory of creating prime ministers is planning to start a new project from thrash. According to theoretical physicist Albert Einstein, “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results.”
The writer is a public policy and international relations scholar and is associated with reputed thinktanks