The challenge to the PM

Published September 24, 2015
This agenda may look tough but it is doable and there is no alternative.
This agenda may look tough but it is doable and there is no alternative.

AROUND International Democracy Day (Sept 15), Mian Nawaz Sharif made the startling disclosure that some people wanted to supplant him in the prime minister’s seat. Since his replacement cannot be regarded as exclusively his personal affair, the people have been waiting to be taken into confidence about the nature of the threat to him.

The ouster of a prime minister does not lie outside the scheme of the constitutional framework in force at present. All that is required is a vote of no-confidence against him in the National Assembly. If a large number of MNAs belonging to the ruling party turn hostile to him even the defection law might not guarantee his survival in office.

However, it is doubtful if his possible fall through a constitutional method was in the prime minister’s mind. In all probability, he was referring to an extra-constitutional change and in that case the target would be the democratic system, perhaps a more serious issue than Mr Nawaz Sharif’s future. The people thus expect the prime minister not only to protect himself but also, and perhaps more urgently, the democratic structure itself.

At the time that Mian Nawaz Sharif hinted at a plot against himself he issued a statement related to International Democracy Day. In it, he reiterated the commonly held public belief that Pakistan’s future lies in the continuation of the democratic system. Indeed, he also added protection of ideology and identity as being among the fruits of democracy.


The people expect the prime minister not only to protect himself but also the democratic structure.


However, his choice of indicators of democracy having acquired a “strong foothold in Pakistan” — improvement in socio-economic fields, prospects for local government, the PML-N’s commitment to the ideal of empowerment of the masses, public consensus on Operation Zarb-i-Azb — caused some anxiety. Such indicators have also been used more than once to justify authoritarian regimes. The people rightly expect the prime minister to ensure government of the people and by the people even if the requirement of government for the people can be claimed to have been fulfilled.

A government does not become democratic merely by having been elected, because it must also be responsible to the people and responsive to their needs and aspirations. Thus, instead of having his eyes all the time on the mischief brewing in the hearts of his rivals, the prime minister should address the question whether his government qualifies as a democratic dispensation.

For instance, ours is supposed to be a parliamentary democracy which is much higher an arrangement than a prime ministerial or a majoritarian order. In a parliamentary system, especially of the Westminster type, the affairs are managed by the cabinet that is collectively answerable to parliament. Is this system being followed in Pakistan these days?

Many observers have pointed out that while both the advisers on foreign affairs are persons of calibre and experience they are only advisers to the prime minister who alone will be held responsible for all acts of commission and omission in the area of external relations. It is strange that there is no full-time minister of defence, who is needed at least for form, and the government is also functioning without a regular law minister. And this while the country has a heavy backlog of legislation. Added to this is public anxiety over growing evidence that the cabinet is not always consulted on matters that should be decided only at that level.

Further, the most fundamental test of democracy is the degree to which parliament is allowed to perform its appointed functions. The prime minister won high praise for consulting parliament when critical issues were tackled. Yet it is wrong to rely on occasional parliamentary sanction as a general power of attorney to dispose of matters of supreme interest to the people.

The people cannot forget the circumstances surrounding the disruption of the democratic experiment in the past. Almost invariably the elected governments were blamed for deviating from the democratic path. They were put down as their own worst enemies and blamed for creating a vacuum that had to be filled by a rival party. The most important task the people expect Mian Nawaz Sharif to perform is to guarantee that Pakistan has seen the last of such aberrations.

To accomplish this, the prime minister must take the proverbial bull by the horns and outmanoeuvre the challengers, instead of allowing himself to be overtaken by events. Besides restoring the cabinet and parliament to their role in a democratic dispensation, the list of power-wielders should be increased to several hundred thousand people, including all members of legislatures and local bodies; civil bureaucracy’s trust in democracy must be revived by filling all posts on merit instead of waiting for favourites to somehow materialise; and the judiciary and defence services ought to be assured of due accommodation in a constitutional, transparent and tension-free arrangement.

Mian Nawaz Sharif need not belittle the citizens’ capacity to appreciate pro-democracy gestures. When the speaker’s election to the National Assembly was annulled the people welcomed the PML-N’s decision to face the electorate instead of seeking refuge behind court orders.

The government should not be a party to demonisation of political parties and it must also stop hounding the civil society organisations, including the media. The theme of this year’s Democracy Day was ‘space for civil society’, a fact though acknowledged by the prime minister but casually glossed over by him. He should pay heed to the advice his predecessors ignored at a huge cost to themselves that those who point out flaws in governance are friends of the state and society and all those who raise a chorus of ‘all is well’ are really self-seekers who will switch their loyalties to the new face of authority without even being asked to do so.

This agenda may look tough but it is doable and there is no alternative.

Published in Dawn, September 24th, 2015

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