Stuck in the groove?

WITH the National Assembly session postponed by “about a week,” the major political parties now get more time to strike a deal for government formation. The session has not been postponed indefinitely — which would have been disastrous — but no date for it has been announced either. On the face of it, the government cannot be held responsible for the delay. It can say, quite convincingly, that the demand — or pressure — for a postponement came from some, though not all, political parties, because they had failed to arrive at an understanding about government making at the centre and in the provinces. However, there seems more to it than meets the eye.

The government is very much party to the delay because the PML(Q) - the “king’s party” — has not yet been able to come to an understanding with either of the other two major contenders for power — the PPP and the MMA. At various times, the PML(Q) leaders had claimed that they had mustered enough support from other parties and groups to be able to form a government. If it were so, the inaugural session of the National Assembly would have been held by now and a PML(Q)-led government been in place. The postponement confirms that the PML(Q) is finding the going hard because of disagreements not only over the top slot but also about some controversial constitutional matters. Zafrullah Jamali’s prime ministership, obviously, is not yet acceptable to a majority in the newly elected assembly. That leaves the field open for the MMA and the PPP to try their own luck in the matter. The PPP has discovered its strength in the new context. The generals, it is said, are uncomfortable with the idea of a government headed by the MMA’s JUI(F) faction, and that they would like the PPP to be part of the new federal set-up. However, the PPP leader in exile is apparently seeking to drive a hard bargain. The party reportedly feels that if at all it is to be in the federal government, then it should be on Benazir Bhutto’s terms. But the generals may not be ready to accept them all. After all, they hold all the levers of power and still have many options up their sleeve. The people meanwhile are getting impatient. By failing to clinch a deal on government formation, the politicians are helping the military prove a point against them. The more they dither, the more the situation is likely to get complicated.

It is time the government also realized that it cannot have everything its way. It did hold the elections within the timeframe given by the Supreme Court, but it did so without providing an even playing field for all the parties. Besides, it created a whole lot of barriers and booby traps for contestants by making arbitrary changes in rules governing the conduct of the polls. The upshot of it all is a hung parliament which poses its own problems of difficult adjustments and compromises to be made in the process of government making. At any rate, politicians engaged in the task must face up to the challenge with wisdom and realism and produce results, thereby bringing an early end to the agonizing delay and suspense following October 10. Immediately, a firm and early date for the NA to meet must be officially notified.

Swerve to the right

PRESIDENT George Bush has reason to be greatly pleased by the results of the mid-term US elections. His Republican Party has wrested control of the Senate from the Democrats and retained its hold on the House of Representatives. His personal effort at raising funds and his energetic campaigning have managed to buck the usual trend where the incumbent party loses in mid-term polls. All the three major centres of power, the White House, the Senate and the House, are now Republican territory. What is good news for President Bush may be bad news for the rest of the world and actually for America itself.

Elections everywhere are seldom decided on foreign policy issues, even less so in the US where on the whole the public is far more insular than in most other countries. But there is little doubt that in this particular case, the Bush administration had successfully bamboozled the American people with his post-9/11 patriotic spiel and war talk. Attention was diverted from the domestic scene, which has been marked by allegations of corporate corruption that reaches the highest echelons of the administration, an economy in trouble, and a marked failure to improve social benefits. The Democrats were running so scared of being dubbed anti-patriotic that they not only went along with the Bush agenda on terror but enthusiastically voted in Congress for the president’s resolution seeking authorization for military action against Iraq. They have now only themselves to blame for their abject showing. There is one view that having won something of a popular mandate for his external policies by presenting himself as a tough leader, Mr Bush may now shed some of his frenzied zeal for an Iraq war. On the other hand, he may feel that he can treat international opinion with even greater scorn and push ahead with his war agenda. He is unlikely to take into account the long-term consequences of his policies, which are being increasingly seen as a form of political imperialism and economic hegemonism which are now adding to the pool and intensity of extreme, militant nationalism and anger, specially in the Muslim world.

Domestically, the outlook for Americans who care remains bleak. Civil liberties face further restrictions, and it will be open season for the far-right Christian fundamentalist lobby, already well represented in the White House. It is only by concentrating on this pernicious slide towards ideological and religious primitiveness that the Democrats can hope to cover lost ground in time for the 2004 presidential election.

College building occupation

NOWHERE in the country do law-enforcement agencies themselves commit such routine and flagrant violations of the law as they feel free to do in Karachi. Encroachments on public land and appropriation of public buildings have, unfortunately, become the norm rather than an exception here in that entire police stations have been set up on usurped plots and properties. But this illegal occupation of public premises is no more restricted to the police alone; a recent case in point is that of the Jungle Shah Government Degree Boys’ College in Keamari, which the rangers have occupied now for 30 months and refuse to vacate. The occupation of the college building has been to the direct detriment of some 350 students admitted to the college’s three faculties — commerce, humanities and science — whose new academic session could not commence as scheduled.

This is not only unfair to the students, whose precious academic time has been wasted, it is also patently irresponsible. The city district government, after hectic negotiations with the quarters concerned, has now been able to convince the rangers to partially vacate the college building so that some nine rooms on the ground floor can be made available for holding classes. It is flagrant violations like these that deepen people’s lack of faith in many of the systems and institutions that we have and make a mockery of the government’s claim to establishing good governance when its own functionaries, by their very actions, prove the case to be otherwise.