By holding a joint sitting of both the houses of Parliament Wednesday and getting a record number of laws, (31), passed in one day, Prime Minister Imran Khan proved all those politicians and commentators completely wrong, excitedly spreading the feeling of doom and gloom about his government.
To spread this feeling, the doomsayers took advantage of the delay in formal announcement of a highly important appointment, dealing with national security affairs. In the peculiar context of Pakistan’s political history, the said delay had forced many to presume as if the prime minister was developing unmanageable differences with praetorian elite. It nearly evaporated the illusion of “same page” as well.
The government also exposed its vulnerability by not holding a joint parliamentary sitting, as scheduled around a week ago. The notification for it was withdrawn in an embarrassing panic. Credible sources then started whispering to parliamentary reporters that some groups and smaller parties, comprising crafty players of power games, were no more willing to support Imran Khan. They are often perceived acting on scheming winks and nods transmitted from invisible quarters of the deep state.
Imran Khan has comfortably been sitting in the prime minister’s office since August 2018, in spite of having a razor-thin majority in our parliament. His survival crucially depends on the support coming from the same parties and groups.
Even on Wednesday, the government could show only 18 more members standing in favor of it, in comparison to the combined numerical strength of all the opposition parties (203). Such a majority remains vulnerable, if you consider the loyalty-switching habits of our political elite.
Interestingly, six senators also voted in favour of the government Wednesday, who, otherwise, had crossed over to opposition benches in March this year and signed in favour of Yousaf Raza Gilani to prop him to the office of the Opposition Leader in the Senate. Pakistan Peoples’ Party has to consider them as the embarrassing baggage from now on to sustain its reputation of a steadfast opposition party.
Amir Liaquat, a whimsical legislator from Karachi, created a different kind of embarrassment for Imran Khan. For another time, recently, he had announced the intent of resigning from the National Assembly and to quit the ruling party as well. But to vote in favour of the government, he was found walking to the house with a broad grin on his face Wednesday. A group of reporters stopped him to get some juicy sound bytes. He employed deadpan spontaneity to humbly admit that his free will had not brought him to Islamabad.
He had rather been pulled to Islamabad to vote for the government. That was enough for sending the message that all the bullying muscles of the state were ruthlessly employed to ensure victory for the government Wednesday.
But like in love and war, all means are also considered justified in the cruel game of politics. In the end, Imran Khan certainly succeeded in sending the message that he was here to stay; had not been abandoned by invisible quarters of the state and continued savoring the capacity of getting a huge set of laws passed by the joint parliamentary sitting in one day. The number-strong opposition hardly has any will and the strategy to block his law-bulldozing binge.
Thanks to this binge, though, even the most experienced parliamentary reporters remained confused whether the law, making the use of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) obligatory, had also been passed or not. At the outset, Asad Qaisar, the Speaker, announced that the government had decided to defer the putting of motion desiring some amendments in the Election Act of 2017. That made many to presume that EVMs related law had not been put for voting and the government would perhaps still want to take the opposition on board regarding the use of EVMs.
But then came some amendments in the Election Act of 2017. After facilitating Overseas Pakistanis to exercise their right to vote, some of these amendments also made the use of EVMs obligatory, if you carefully read their fine print. But comprehensive details of these amendments were not available to the media, until my writing this column.
The whole concept of parliamentary democracy clearly demands that average citizens must know the intention behind preparing some laws. The concerned ministers are required to explain them with details while putting them before elected forums. While opposing them, the opposition leaders focus on highlighting the negative or unworkable aspects of the proposed laws. But this government’s obsessive zeal for bulldozing the plethora of laws in one-go consistently denies us this inalienable right.
As the opposition leader in the National Assembly, Shehbaz Sharif had ample time for delivering a comprehensive speech, primarily focusing on projecting deadly sides of the laws, the government seemed adamant to get approved during one sitting of both the houses of parliament. But he lacked focus and preferred to speak for history etc.
In comparison to him, in spite of being a first timer to parliament, the youthful chairman of Pakistan Peoples’ Party, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, surely delivered a focused and spirited speech. He started by vigorously questioning the kind of “relief and comfort”, Imran government was allegedly furnishing for an Indian spy, caught red handed on Pakistan’s soil, by bulldozing a specific law on Wednesday. He also sounded impressively brilliant by mocking the idea of using EVMs for polling in the next election.
Both the National Assembly and the Senate had the facility of voting by pushing buttons installed on legislators’ seats, he tauntingly pointed out. Huge boards are also placed in all corners of the house to display the results. But neither the National Assembly nor the Senate ever utilised this facility. Yet the same parliament, he seriously wondered, was now rushing to introduce EVMs for huge and mass scale polling during the general elections.
The PPP Chairman also put pertinent questions regarding the manner, the government was trying to disregard reservations, not only the PPP but some opposition parties of Sindh had also expressed regarding the results of census held in 2017. The ministers arrogantly disregarded these concerns, having the capacity of morphing into an explosive political issue.
After failing to block the government through voting in the house, a large number of opposition members switched to stirring absolute chaos by chanting anti-Imran slogans. That provoked many ruling party legislators and they appeared dying for physically sorting out the rude and loud chanters. Many seniors of the ruling alliance struggled hard to rein them. Eventually, the opposition felt tired and walked out of the House. The government took advantage of their absence by rushing through the rest of the day’s extraordinarily heavy agenda.
Both Shehbaz Sharif and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari firmly told the government that if the next elections were to be held under laws bulldozed on Wednesday, all the opposition parties would not accept their results. They also expressed the intent of challenging them in courts. But I personally fear that the joint parliamentary sitting of Wednesday will strengthen hawkish elements within the opposition, desperately pressing for a do or die kind of showdown with the government by mobilising their supporters for a march on Islamabad.