Daily Times

The country may have managed to introduce legislation needed to get off the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF’s) grey list, but the manner in which proceedings in parliament were carried out leave a little something to be desired, to say the least. First the opposition blocked the bills in the Senate, where it has a majority, yet later the three bills and five others were passed in the joint sitting of parliament. Surely that proves, without even having the need to check it, wheeling and dealing on the part of many opposition politicians; something strongly reminiscent of the kind of back door business that resulted in the unexpected defeat of the no-confidence motion against National Assembly Speaker Sadiq Sanjrani last year.

As the combined opposition goes right back to licking its wounds, perhaps it should give a thought or two to just why its ranks are so disunited. For example, 30 PML-N legislators were mysteriously absent from the voting session, even though their leaders seemed worried that the government was leveraging FATF to introduce black laws that suit it and, going forward, no businessmen would be safe from NAB, and all that. In fact, the ruling party was so sure of victory that it almost seemed as if it was somehow assured of it. These things will raise questions that will dominate the prime time TV cycle for the coming days, especially since the opposition’s other threat – the all party meeting that is supposed to come up with a plan to unseat the government – isn’t going too well either.

It’s difficult to figure out which is the bigger shame; our leaders’ inability or unwillingness to stand together even on issues vital to national security or the unending habit of some of our more seasoned politicians to periodically stab somebody in the back, even if it is their own leadership. Then there is the nudge that always seems to come from some place and never fails to affect the behaviour of some very important players. Hopefully the friction between the government and the opposition will not grow into something that affects overall governance. But for that to happen it would help if politicians from both sides of the aisle can begin to see eye to eye on at least some issues. *