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PML-N’s ‘interesting’ rule: Have the 2018 elections already been lost?
Global Village Space |
Shaukat Qadir |
In the Chinese language, if you say, “May you live in interesting times”; it’s a curse. Pakistan seems to have spent its life in ‘interesting times’. The uncertainty has been more or less, never absent. Except perhaps in the period of Ayub Khan’s first five years.
I am beginning to wonder if this is a competitive fact. Are our various political parties trying to outdo each other in surviving interesting times? The last PPP era outshone any other in the successful loot of the national treasury. But, while those five years also witnessed self-created political turmoil, it seems that the PML-N government is determined to outshine any other in self-created political turmoil. And that, in the run-up to the elections.
There is little doubt that the army has been the principal state institution responsible for nurturing political uncertainty.
After Musharraf, with the army leaning over backward to try reassuring the elected government of its support for a democratic rule, one would have thought times would change. But that was not to be.
Read more: Pakistan in the last decade: Democracy, Corruption, or Development?
There is little doubt that the army has been the principal state institution responsible for nurturing political uncertainty. But perhaps, in recent years, the burden of this uncertainty has steadily shifted to the shoulders of elected rulers.
Not only are they squandering the pitifully few resources of this wretched country on personal luxuries, a fact borne out by this year’s supplementary budget, but they also seem least concerned about their governance responsibilities.
The principal threat to the nation today is from terrorists and whatever is to be done in that regard, is left to the military. NAP is somnolent; NACTA drugged, and whenever questions arise, one or the other minister delivers a fiery speech lauding governmental efforts, even if these efforts are conspicuous by their absence.
The principal threat to the nation is from terrorists, and whatever is to be done in that regard has been left to the military.
Considering that the Panama Leaks case has reached a threatening stage, the government should have been busy trying to prove its credentials for the next elections and ensure popular support by its actions. But in presenting the Jhadav case before the ICJ, the government again succeeded in finding the most incompetent person to represent Pakistan.
It is almost impossible to fathom how any respectable lawyer, conscious of his reputation, could act in a manner that reflects so seriously on his legal competence? He couldn’t be; since he has earlier represented India in another case. So why this sudden ineptitude?
Read more: Free and fair elections: Can democracy in Pakistan be resurrected?
Occurring in the wake of the mysterious secret visit by Jindal and his meeting with the PM, the incident was bound to give rise to rumors of conspiracies at the highest levels. Among these rumors, one is particularly disconcerting; that on hearing the military’s objections to the performance of the government’s hand-picked lawyer, the military was told to hire and pay for its own lawyer in the Jhadav case.
For a case of such national importance? If this is true, it’s unbelievably amazing. Civil-military relations are also a two-way street. Why should the elected government make deliberate efforts to sour them? And, such a comment could have no other purpose but to deliberately sour them.
Read full article:
PML-N’s ‘interesting’ rule: Have the 2018 elections already been lost?
Global Village Space |
Shaukat Qadir |
In the Chinese language, if you say, “May you live in interesting times”; it’s a curse. Pakistan seems to have spent its life in ‘interesting times’. The uncertainty has been more or less, never absent. Except perhaps in the period of Ayub Khan’s first five years.
I am beginning to wonder if this is a competitive fact. Are our various political parties trying to outdo each other in surviving interesting times? The last PPP era outshone any other in the successful loot of the national treasury. But, while those five years also witnessed self-created political turmoil, it seems that the PML-N government is determined to outshine any other in self-created political turmoil. And that, in the run-up to the elections.
There is little doubt that the army has been the principal state institution responsible for nurturing political uncertainty.
After Musharraf, with the army leaning over backward to try reassuring the elected government of its support for a democratic rule, one would have thought times would change. But that was not to be.
Read more: Pakistan in the last decade: Democracy, Corruption, or Development?
There is little doubt that the army has been the principal state institution responsible for nurturing political uncertainty. But perhaps, in recent years, the burden of this uncertainty has steadily shifted to the shoulders of elected rulers.
Not only are they squandering the pitifully few resources of this wretched country on personal luxuries, a fact borne out by this year’s supplementary budget, but they also seem least concerned about their governance responsibilities.
The principal threat to the nation today is from terrorists and whatever is to be done in that regard, is left to the military. NAP is somnolent; NACTA drugged, and whenever questions arise, one or the other minister delivers a fiery speech lauding governmental efforts, even if these efforts are conspicuous by their absence.
The principal threat to the nation is from terrorists, and whatever is to be done in that regard has been left to the military.
Considering that the Panama Leaks case has reached a threatening stage, the government should have been busy trying to prove its credentials for the next elections and ensure popular support by its actions. But in presenting the Jhadav case before the ICJ, the government again succeeded in finding the most incompetent person to represent Pakistan.
It is almost impossible to fathom how any respectable lawyer, conscious of his reputation, could act in a manner that reflects so seriously on his legal competence? He couldn’t be; since he has earlier represented India in another case. So why this sudden ineptitude?
Read more: Free and fair elections: Can democracy in Pakistan be resurrected?
Occurring in the wake of the mysterious secret visit by Jindal and his meeting with the PM, the incident was bound to give rise to rumors of conspiracies at the highest levels. Among these rumors, one is particularly disconcerting; that on hearing the military’s objections to the performance of the government’s hand-picked lawyer, the military was told to hire and pay for its own lawyer in the Jhadav case.
For a case of such national importance? If this is true, it’s unbelievably amazing. Civil-military relations are also a two-way street. Why should the elected government make deliberate efforts to sour them? And, such a comment could have no other purpose but to deliberately sour them.
Read full article:
PML-N’s ‘interesting’ rule: Have the 2018 elections already been lost?
