Pakistan: The folly of an uncrowned monarch

Like the prodigal son in the Gospel of Luke (15:11-32) Nawaz Sharif returned to parliament, frightened and nervous. This was because a few thousand agitators led by Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri have been demanding his resignation. Since his victory in last year's elections, which yielded a comfortable majority to the PML-N in the National Assembly, Nawaz has treated parliament with aloof disdain and has seldom participated in its deliberations.
At the joint session of the National Assembly and the Senate all political parties stood by the beleaguered prime minister, and, despite their reservations about him, insisted that under no circumstances should he step down. In Shakespearean terms they seemed to be saying that it was better to "bear those ills we have, than fly to others we know not of!" The prime minister, they proclaimed, could only be removed by parliament through a vote of no-confidence as per the stipulations of the constitution.
Nawaz Sharif was, nevertheless, severely reprimanded for his embarrassingly obvious failings, and, in particular for relegating the legislature to the backwaters in his order of priorities. There was truth in this because he did not attend a single session of the Senate during its last parliamentary year which ended in March 2014. He showed up in the National Assembly on January 29 after a seven-month gap following which he made another appearance on February 26, and, since then was rarely seen in parliament till the eruption of the on-going political disturbances.
A positive outcome of the Imran-Qadri extravaganza on Islamabad's Constitution Avenue for the last five weeks is that Nawaz Sharif has at last deigned to frequently attend the prolonged joint session of the two legislative chambers. One hopes that this will continue after the turmoil subsides.
Television showed the sombre-faced prime minister stoically undergoing the verbal flagellations of opposition parliamentarians. Had Ian Fleming (1908-1964), the creator of James Bond been alive, he would have depicted Nawaz's facial expression as the human equivalent of Bond's favourite drink, 'vodka martini, shaken but not stirred.'
The PML-N chief was certainly 'shaken' by the unparalleled stupidity of Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri in persevering with and actually believing that their illegal and unconstitutional movement would succeed in toppling the elected government. But Nawaz was not 'stirred' to rise to the occasion, in spite of his convincing strength in parliament, to lead the country out of the political storm which has already lost its fury and has been reduced to the irritating pitter-patter of a feeble drizzle at the tail end of the monsoons.
The severity of the tongue lashing that the parliamentary opposition administered to Nawaz Sharif was undoubtedly justified. But the performance of the current National Assembly has been anything but stellar and is in stark contrast to the output of its predecessor. All political parties, whether in government or in opposition, are equally to blame.
In two thoroughly researched articles in March and May last year analysts observed that the previous National Assembly was unique in the sense that it not only completed its full five-year term from 2008 to 2013 but in this period it convened 50 times and remained in session for an unprecedented 665 days. For the first time ever in Pakistan's parliamentary history, a woman was elected as the speaker of the National Assembly, and, yet another unparalleled development was that the military leadership gave confidential briefings to parliament on important security matters.
A total of 45 standing committees convened on 915 different occasions, 16 special committees met 105 times whereas 60 sub-committees held 112 meetings. An impressive 40 per cent of these committees were chaired by opposition members of parliament which, according to the scholars, was "an indicator that won Pakistan many points on the quality quotient of democracy."
Despite the appallingly low standard of the debates, the 13th National Assembly passed 134 bills, which included 115 out of 222 legislative drafts introduced by the previous government plus an unprecedented 19 from a total of 206 private member bills. The House also adopted 85 resolutions and received 3,810 Calling Attention Notices. Furthermore, as many as 467 statements were made by the parliamentarians on issues of national importance.
To a large extent this was because former Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, whose term of office from March 25, 2008 to April 26, 2012 was the second longest (1,494 days) after that of Liaquat Ali Khan (1,524 days), made it a point to regularly participate in parliamentary debates. In contrast it has taken Nawaz Sharif a mere 435 days from June 5, 2013 to August 14 this year, to make a complete mess of things. Had parliament not rallied round and extended support to him, his government could have come to an inglorious end.
Imran Khan was not all that wrong when he said that Nawaz Sharif behaves like an uncrowned monarch rather than an elected prime minister. The last 16 months have shown that Nawaz Sharif has learnt nothing from his past mistakes which resulted in the abrupt termination of his previous two prime ministerial terms. Brimming with confidence, he again began running the country like a family enterprise.
The initial signs of the rot were visible almost immediately. His son, Husain Nawaz, a non-entity who reportedly manages the family's perfectly legal business interests in the UK, was unfortunately shown on television participating in energy-related meetings in early July 2013 alongside the water and power minister, Khawaja Asif. When questioned by the media, the minister brushed this aside as a "tradition".
A week later, the same regal 'tradition' was in evidence again when the prime minister's nephew Hamza Shahbaz Sharif, who is also a member of the National Assembly and son of the Punjab chief minister, arrived in Sheikhupura in a helicopter provided by the provincial government to inspect a 'sasta' (fair price) Ramazan bazaar. Video clips of the event, which were telecast on prime time news, showed Hamza being driven from the helipad to the market in right royal fashion.
I was told by a close associate of Imran Khan on Tuesday (September 16) that these two events, which had faded from public memory, were nevertheless important because they signified a trend that had been established within days after Nawaz Sharif was sworn in for his third term. This, he said, had become even more pronounced in the past one year, and, was one of several reasons for the PTI and PAT protests.
But Imran Khan, Tahirul Qadri and almost every other politician are no less infected by the same pernicious virus. Even worse, Imran and Qadri have been completely unhinged by the dismal failure of their respective movements. They should heed the words of Lawrence of Arabia in his 1927 book, Revolt in the Desert: "There can be no honour in a sure success, but much might be wrested from a sure defeat." There is still time to make amends and the first step is to come to terms with reality by calling off their ridiculous occupation of the federal capital's Red Zone.
Irrespective of whether or not the lunacy on Constitution Avenue ends, the government should move ahead with electoral reforms for which a parliamentary committee has been established. But there is no need to reinvent the wheel because a considerable amount of work has already been done on this.
The Pildat president, Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, cites the March 2013 comprehensive report of the Senate Special Committee on Electoral Issues which incorporated the recommendations of an earlier study that was done by the National Assembly Standing Committee on Parliamentary Affairs. Furthermore, the Election Commission of Pakistan proposed 24 amendments to the Representation of People Act, 1976 in January 2013 which the previous National Assembly was unable to pass. These are the three documents that will provide the core ingredients for the sorely needed reforms.
This should be the focus of the government's efforts in the coming weeks while the cricketer and the cleric continue with their 'disco demonstrations', and, in the process destroy whatever still remains of their severely mauled credibility.
The writer is the publisher of Islamabad-based Criterion Quarterly.

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