Governor Punjab’s resignation is a political setback for the Sharif government for sure. Chaudhary Muhammad Sarwar made a graceful exit after seventeen months in office, hinting at his new independent role on Pakistan’s political landscape. At his press conference on Jan. 29, he was candid and forthright in expressing his inability to resolve people’s problems in his capacity as Governor.
The governor’s resignation serves to highlight two things: one, the non-democratic culture of political parties; two, the ineptness of democratic leaders to improve service delivery. Leaders don’t want to listen to dissenting views and instead require conformity from party members. Due to this limiting factor, mediocrity prevails and parties have become fiefdoms. It was quite in line with the undemocratic mindset that all political parties joined hands to remove the condition of intra-party elections and deleted the relevant provision from the Constitution, at the time of enactment of the Eighteenth Amendment. The current practice of holding elections within political parties is by and large a farce. In December last year, a Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development And Transparency (PILDAT) report revealed the PTI getting the highest marks on the scorecard for assessment of internal democracy and the PML-N was placed at the bottom. The report further described dynastic leadership and long delays in convening meetings of parties’ central bodies as the ills afflicting the culture of major political parties.
Because of the centralized structure of political parties, there is no mechanism at the grass roots level that could serve as a nursery for new leaders. It is seldom that members from the rank and file of political parties could rise to higher positions and power remains the monopoly of those with benefits of political lineage and hereditary wealth. With such an authoritarian culture in vogue, it was not surprising that no supporter came out on the streets when the Nawaz Sharif government was overthrown in 1999. Chaudhary Sarwar is a man of substance. He surrendered his British nationality and returned back to Pakistan with lofty intentions of improving the lot of the poor. He crafted policy interventions in social areas of education and health, but these steps caused annoyance for the Chief Minister who perhaps considers the delegation of tasks a taboo. The CM also took the Governor’s pro-active role as a threat to his image of ‘superman’. And his remarks of dubbing inability to convince Obama to visit Pakistan a diplomatic failure sealed his fate. But the PML-N leadership is oblivious to the fact that with only yes-men around, tragic mistakes like the Model Town and Faisalabad shooting will remain frequent.
The situation is more or less the same in the PPP and the PTI. Shah Mehmood Qureshi was shown the door when he as the foreign minister took an independent line on the Raymond Davis affair. Today the PPP jiyala feels disillusioned with the central leadership and the party has virtually been reduced to a regional role. With all its merits, time-serving political figures or big financers always occupy the PTI center stage. During the sit-in, it came out in the public that Imran Khan also took and announced big decisions like launching the civil disobedience movement, without taking central executive committee members into confidence.
The ex-governor made no bones about mentioning several failings of the system: the ‘qabza mafia’ in Pakistan is very powerful; land grabbers don’t even spare the properties of overseas Pakistanis who contribute 25 billion dollars to the national economy in the form of remittances; the incidents of rape and acid throwing on women are on the constant rise; 26 million children of school going age are deprived of their fundamental right to education and enjoy their childhood; a majority of the population don’t have access to clean drinking water. These are not surprising revelations, but coming from a highly placed official, this meant nothing less than a serious indictment of the ‘democratic’ system, which the present elected lot claim to defend under all circumstances. The people at the helm of affairs should not forget that nothing poses a danger to democracy as grave as a failure to deliver. Despite that, the establishment of military courts undermines the spirit of a democratic constitution, the civilian government could not resist the demand because our judicial system has failed to bring terrorists to justice. In 2007, people stood up for the restoration of the deposed Chief Justice but later the opportunity to improve the state of affairs at the level of lower judiciary was lost. And therefore the recent calls for strike by lawyers’ bodies have not resonated with the public and ring hollow.
Likewise the investment in health and education sectors is necessary to make people taste the fruits of the democratic project. The educated citizenry will play its role in improving the quality of democracy by making a conscious and informed choice in elections. Presently, primary and secondary education remain the most neglected sectors.
After spending nearly two years in office, the PML-N government has not launched any initiative to reform governance. The plan to reshuffle cabinet portfolios after extensive performance evaluation has also been shelved. De-politicization of the bureaucracy and introducing an effective local government system are key steps to improving the access of people to essential services. Further, political parties should not stifle dissent within its ranks and promote a culture of healthy criticism.