LAHORE, Dec 30: Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, as expected, has won a confidence vote. Despite all efforts made by the premier and chief ministers of three provinces during the past one month, only 16 more legislators have been won over as a result of which the number of those who have reaffirmed their trust in the Baloch leader went up to 188.

The negligible majority the new government enjoys in the house means that opposition parties will keep the rulers on the tenterhooks, making it difficult for them to honour commitments made in their election manifestos. And a state of paralysis will be seen in case the government has to make any amendment to the Constitution, for which purpose a two-thirds majority of both houses will be required.

In fact, the government may have to violate some of its electoral pledges to be able to survive. For example, in its manifesto the PML-Q had promised to set limits on the number of ministers and advisers that can be appointed in the federal and the provincial cabinets. The purpose was to make a departure from the unenviable traditions of the past when new portfolios were created to accommodate more ministers and thus maintain a majority by burdening the exchequer.

But, in the prevailing situation it will be very difficult for the government to reduce the number of ministers. It will have to appoint as many ministers, ministers of state, advisers, parliamentary secretaries, chairmen of standing committees and special assistants as possible to ensure the survival of the setup.

The manipulative ways used by the government to show its majority can hardly be supported by any democratic polity. Encouraging or forcing people to change their loyalties is not a healthy practice. But this has been the mainstay of the present government. This is nothing but horse trading, no matter what term the government prefers to use for the ‘carrot-and-stick’ method employed to show that Mr.Jamali is a popular leader. Horses are not the creature to speak and tell what had made them to change their loyalty. The traders certainly know the whole truth —- but they can’t be expected to share the condemnable secret with the electorate. Prime Minister Jamali has succeeded in showing his majority in the National Assembly —- but he has been able to add this feather to his cap by slaughtering the democratic traditions. More unfortunate is the fact that the manipulative methods were used in connivance with, and under the very nose of, Gen Pervez Musharraf, who had promised the nation a “real and genuine democracy” as replacement to the sham systems practised in the past.

If this was the system he had promised, he has wasted three precious years of the nation.

Horse-trading is something to be curbed, not encouraged. And by making legislators of the other parties to switch loyalties, the present government has only weakened the parties of which the lawmakers have been ‘plucked’. People who did not stay with their parties for whatever reasons, cannot be expected to remain loyal to their new ‘buyers’ for long.

The price the government has paid to get support from the Muttahida Qaumi Movement is incalculable. A party which does not believe in the 1973 Constitution and calls for provincial autonomy, contours of which had been delineated in the 1940 Lahore Resolution, should not be given representation in the setup.

Except for the governing PML-Q, all other parties are of the view that the MQM’s demands are against the very solidarity of the country and the rulers should not have accepted their support just for the sake of power.

The irony is that even after paying this price, the system remains unworkable. The government may be in a position to take routine decisions on account of simple majority, but it can’t be expected to do more. The composition of the Senate, the Upper House of the bicameral legislature, will further clip the wings of the present government.

The ruling party which changed its “constitutional” decisions regarding the party structure after Gen.Musharraf’s intervention has already exposed its vulnerability. Neither the party nor the government will be free in their working. And it can’t even be imagined that the present setup will be able to take any step for the supremacy of parliament.

Prudence demands that the rulers should rise above their personal interests and think of greater good of the country. They can give the country a stable system by extending an olive branch to the ARD and the MMA. Give them representation in the federal government to make the system stable, workable.

Common grounds for cooperation can be explored. Where there’s will, there’s way. No price is too high for the national unity and a strong democratic system. Specially so for the people whose slogan is “Pakistan first”.

If deserters can be accepted, why not their parent parties. Superfluous to point out the undercurrents in the ruling party. The coronation of the PPP man who had defeated the party’s central information secretary as interior minister has sent very wrong signals to the PML-Q loyalists.

Similarly bestowing someone with defence ministry after he defeated the man who had contested the general election from the PML-Q platform, severing his 30-year association with the PPP, is a disincentive to those who plan to join the ruling party.

A government of national unity, observers say, will save the country from the confrontation opposition parties are planning to launch.