KARACHI: Dubbing current political leadership ‘incapable’, parliamentary system ‘ineffective’ and economy ‘on the verge of collapse’, politicians from different backgrounds on Sunday called for a greater dialogue among political stakeholders to develop consensus on a strategy to steer Pakistan out of present turmoil.

Former prime minister and PML-N leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, former PPP senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar and senior politician from Balochistan Lashkari Raisani, who gathered here at Karachi Press Club under the banner of ‘Reimagining Pakistan’, also urged leaders from across political spectrum to rise above their individual and party interests to meet multiple challenges faced by the country.

Expressing these views as part of a nationwide campaign through seminars to develop a consensus on the future course of action for stability, the three leaders also shared a brief of what was meant to be discussed in detail at the Feb 18 seminar that was postponed after a terrorist attack on Karachi Police Office.

Former premier Abbasi claimed that Reimagining Pakistan was an “apolitical platform for political awakening among the parties” so they could return to their real agenda of reforms, stability and consensus on key national issues.

Ex-PM Abbasi says political, economic and constitutional system has miserably failed

“The current system whether it’s political, economic or constitutional has failed miserably,” said the PML-N leader, sitting beside Mr Khokhar and Mr Raisani.

Shrinking democratic space

“Today’s politics, as we all know, is restricted to allegations and counter-allegations. We have moved from debate to abuse and from argument to revenge. So we in fact are making attempts to explore options to seek solutions. We are here to awaken the political forces and make them realise that to run the country and this system they would have to keep their political interests aside,” the former prime minister said.

However, he ruled out any possibility of turning “Reimagining Pakistan” into a political party, claiming that most of the members were already part of different political parties and they were not involved in this exercise for want of power.

He also announced that the Feb 18 seminar, which was third in the series of Reimagining Pakistan seminars, would be held on March 4.

Mr Khokhar said he had no plan to form or join any party, pointing out that his initiative to found Reimagining Pakistan was a ‘non-partisan’ effort to find ways to bring the country out of the economic quagmire and degeneration in politics.

“How can one doubt this platform as power hungry? We are talking about the failure of this system and exploring options to steer nation out of this crisis. So how can we be suspected for initiating this to get some space or power from the same system,” the former senator explained in response to another question.

Mr Raisani regretted how the Pakistan Democratic Movement government failed to meet the expectations of the people despite being represented by almost all key political parties of the country.

“But we are seeing how they are failing to address even the basic issues which strengthen the democracy and the parliament. We see how this whole system is being exploited in the name of accountability and rule of law.”

Published in Dawn, February 20th, 2023