Don’t. Stop. Gul Bukhari
The combination of the Supreme Court’s judgment on Nawaz Sharif’s
‘qualification’ to remain party president; its unprecedented ruling to hold all
decisions of Sharif as party president including that of awarding senate
tickets to his party members; and the Election Commission’s decision to not
allow the PMLN to field its candidates for the upcoming senate election, cannot
easily be gulped down as incidental consequences of unrelated legal or
administrative decisions. First, many a president, prime minister, officer, and
judge have been removed from office or their appointment declared illegal or
unconstitutional in the past. But never have their actions and decisions during
the holding of office been held void ab initio, even where they have taken
decisions injurious to public interest. In comparison, Sharif’s decisions after
disqualification from the office of the prime minister, were with regard to his
own party matters not matters of government, state or public import, but were
voided.
For months, political analysts have suggested that there are indications that
the senate elections of 2018 will be sabotaged by undemocratic forces to the
detriment of the PMLN, because given its representative standing especially in
the Punjab assembly, it stands to gain an absolute majority in the Upper House.
Much credibility was leant to this theory when arch enemy Imran Khan began to
agitate for early general elections, followed by the bizzare toppling of the
Balochistan government. The Balochistan foible was widely believed to have been
engineered to deprive the PMLN of senate seats from that province, with
widespread reports of harassment and terror used as tools to force change of
loyalties. What lent vindication to said speculation were these two acts of the
Supreme Court and the Election Commission, which appear to be aimed at
political engineering. Consider: the senate candidates of the PMLN are a
party’s candidates, and the party having seats in provincial legislatures has
the right to field candidates for the Senate. By voiding the candidatures AFTER
the deadline of Senate nominations, the Supreme Court’s decision being viewed
as political and mala fide in nature by observers cannot be faulted. Even the
smallest party that might attain a single seat in the senate would have been
seen as damaging to the democratic project, but ousting the largest party from
this democratic process is being seen not just as victimisation of a popular
political party, but as travesty of justice, violation of political rights, and
a fell strike on the federal nature of political representative system, given
that PMLN would have gained the most senate seats from Punjab where it has
overwhelming electoral majority.
In public
perception, what drove the nail into the coffin of non-partisan decisions was
the Election Commission’s solution to the unusual problem of what to do with
the PMLN candidatures. As a leading daily’s editorial correctly pointed out –
‘ECP has opted for an astonishingly poor option’. The ECP was confronted with
an unprecedented problem. The most straightforward solution would have been to
allow the party chairman, who has the authority vested in him and who went to
the ECP to do so, to re sign the candidates’ nominations. This would have
fulfilled the so-called ‘technical’ problem arising from the Supreme Court’s
decision. However, the ECP chose not to do so, gave no reasons and cited no
rules. Instead, it opted to allow the PMLN candidates to register as independent
candidates, stripping them of party affiliation. This creative solution has
only served to re-confirm fears of a conspiracy of political engineering simply
because now these senators will be free to join any party post their election,
reintroducing the potential for what is locally known as horse trading: the
facilitation of manipulation, bribery, blackmail and strong arm tactics
traditionally associated with the establishment to bring popular leaders and
parties down.
The angle
that has not been discussed in detail at all, however, is the attack on the
Punjabi polity, at the thwarting of its will, at its representation in the
Upper House with these decisions. Given the senate is designed to provide
parity of representation to all provinces, and PMLN holds circa 90 percent
seats in the Punjab assembly, stripping PMLN senators of the party affiliation
means stripping Punjab of representation in the senate. Should the horses get
traded eventually, they will not be representing the will of this province’s
MPAs who voted for them, nor by extension the will of people. Punjab voted
overwhelmingly for Nawaz Sharif and PMLN, and Punjab will see this as the
ultimate betrayal by undemocratic forces.
This
situation becomes immediately reminiscent of East Pakistan breaking away to
become Bangladesh after a horrific war between East and West Pakistan. Reason?
The Bangali mandate given to Mujib ur Rehman in the 1970 general election was
rejected by the Pakistani establishment, which then attacked its own East Wing
to conquer its people. The similarity is as striking as it is dangerous. The
widespread resentment of Baloch, Pashtun, Sindhi, and Gilgit-Baltistani
polities against the establishment is no secret. Punjab, however, was its
traditional bastion. Hence, the question arises, who cuts the last branch he’s
sitting on left in the tree?
As if
this were not enough, barely a day into this devastating blow to the province,
Punjab government has been targeted via the notorious National Accountability
Bureau (NAB). By carrying out the arrest in a humiliating manner of a reputedly
professional, highly esteemed and accomplished officer of the Punjab government
seen as close to Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, the powers that be have
triggered the entire Punjab bureaucracy into a protest strike. As if on cue,
the establishment’s pet Sheroo pronounced the officer a ‘front man’ of Shahbaz
Sharif, promising an nth press conference to provide the ever elusive
‘evidence’ against the duo’s corruption. One has seen this drill far too often
to not pick up on the pattern.
The
government servant in question is nicknamed ‘speedy’ for spearheading and
delivering on major, highly acclaimed projects of the Punjab government. This
has brought government in Punjab to near standstill, endangering the final
phases of key remaining projects. This too is being eyed with intense suspicion
by the public of the province, especially in light of a remark by the Chief
Justice just a few weeks earlier saying he would hold up the flagship Orange
Train project if health and education were not fixed first. It was commonly
perceived as judicial foray into executive space and a threat to disrupt
governance.
None of
this bodes well for the country. We have only just witnessed the Pashtun
protests and the Swat protests that were an expression of resistance to the
establishment and demand for political and fundamental rights. The use of the
judicial and administrative machinery for political manipulation, engineering,
and thwarting of democracy itself can trigger the largest province beyond the
point that damage control can be achieved. This must stop. The people own this
country and they cannot be suppressed forever from their right to rule
themselves through their chosen representative.
The writer is a human rights worker and freelance columnist.
@gulbukhari
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