AS the Panama Papers saga winds on, a familiar and regrettable pattern is asserting itself: the government appears to be using its legal and political worries as an excuse to not focus on governance issues. Once again, the country has a government that is sidestepping its responsibilities and implicitly claiming political persecution. To be sure, even at its highest point politically, the present PML-N government has not had structural reforms as a priority, nor a particularly strong legislative agenda. Macroeconomic stabilisation, an avowed goal, has been pursued according to the seemingly whimsical priorities of Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. So, while there have been some successes, a persistent critique of the PML-N government has been that it has neglected systemic reforms in favour of potentially unsustainable gains.

Be that as it may, the PML-N has found a way to distract itself even from its own narrow goals. The usual foil has been the PTI and its endless campaign to unsettle or de-seat the government. Occasionally, the problem has been a military establishment that the government has perceived as encroaching on civilian domain. Always, however, there has been a ready excuse, as is there again — external forces are preventing the government from focusing wholly on its priorities. Ministers including Khurram Dastgir and Muhammad Zubair have complained about the politics of agitation; government advisers and public relations figures have lamented the allegations against the first family; and seemingly the whole government machinery is distracted by the need to deny any wrongdoing by the Sharifs and to denounce opposition figures. Cabinet meetings, already rare, seem to have become a non-priority. Inter-provincial forums, already moribund, have been virtually forgotten. Events critical to future planning, such as the census, are debated in a desultory manner. The only matter that appears to animate the government is the Panama Papers and the negative light the revelations contained therein have cast on the first family.

To be sure, few, if any, in the political opposition are interested in anything other than the Panama Papers, the ongoing Supreme Court hearings and the colourful media trials staged in the electronic media on a daily basis. Gone, at least in recent weeks, has been any opposition interest in electoral reforms. Next month, the sunset clause in the 21st Amendment will trigger itself and military courts will stand disbanded — but there is no parliamentary interest in judicial reforms evident. Yet, the greater burden is necessarily on the elected government, not the political opposition. As the chief custodian of the democratic project, the government has a responsibility to not only govern, but to demonstrate that governance is the primary priority no matter the temporary distractions. The government needs to do much better.

Published in Dawn, December 3rd, 2016