THE newly-elected National Assembly recently met as a result of a presidential summon that should have been a matter of routine, but was anything but. The outgoing president initially refused to sign the summary put up by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs on the plea that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had not yet decided the matter of the allocation of women’s seats. However, the National Assembly secretariat had itself prepared a draft to summon the house, and once the president realised that even his refusal would have had no effect, he did what he should have done straightaway. This was just another episode in Pakistan’s experience with democracy.

The president’s attitude was a sign of things to come during the house procee- dings. One of the main problems of the new house is to make the so-called independents behave themselves. If recent proceedings are anything to go by, they will do their best, or worst, to be a vociferous, stumbling block in parliament.

The letter written to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), asking the lending agency to link its programme for Pakistan to electoral audit, is just the beginning. The government has to ensure that the opposition group does not attempt to conduct a foreign policy of its own. The letter to the IMF shows that the group knows how critical the negotiations with the IMF are. It knows that to continue with IMF programme is vital for the survival of the national economy. And, yet, it has done whatever it could to sabotage the IMF programme for Pakistan.

A bigger challenge for the government would be to survive for five years. As we have seen over the last 15 years, the National Assembly completes its tenure, but governments do fall, with or without a change in the ruling party. The brewing politics of agitation by the opposition group would be a ticklish issue for the govern- ment. In the larger national interest, one would like to hope that sanity would prevail in parliamentary proceedings sooner rather than later, and that people across the political divide would be able to prioritise national interest over personal ego, vested interests, and anything else.

Jamshed Alam Siddiqui
Lahore

Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2024