Senate elections
and after
Rashed Rahman
The dust had
barely settled on the Senate elections on the 52 seats of the retiring members
or half the house when the results indicated that the rumours of horse-trading
may not have been without foundation. Both Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan have
asked for investigation of the alleged horse-trading since all the results do
not square with the respective parties’ strength in the Assemblies. PPP’s
surprise showing of 12, the second highest tally of seats after the PML-N’s 15,
has given birth to a rash of reports and comments painting Asif Zardari as the
‘evil genius’ of this corruption of the democratic process.
That perception
may owe something to Asif Zardari’s reputation and his alleged role in toppling
the PML-N-led coalition government in Balochistan on the eve of the Senate
elections. PPP emissaries’ dash to Quetta immediately after the Senate elections
serves to firm up suspicions in this regard. The chief minister installed after
this parliamentary ‘coup’ in Quetta, Mir Abdul Quddus Bizenjo, inadvertently
indulged in rich irony when he denied any horse-trading in the Senate elections
when he and his government have still to come out from under the shadow of
being installed through such means themselves.
The anomalies in
the results include former governor and ex-PML-N member Chaudhry Mohammad
Sarwar’s victory in Punjab with 44 votes when his current party, the PTI, only
has 30 MPAs in the Punjab Assembly. This has set off a flurry of internal
debates within the Punjab PML-N, with Chief Minister and recently anointed
interim head of the PML-N Shahbaz Sharif being reportedly annoyed with his son
Hamza for the failure to ‘handle’ the PML-N Punjab Assembly flock in the
desired manner. Of course point man Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah has
attempted to cover up by denying any investigation has been ordered and even
suggesting Sarwar’s extra 14 votes may have come from the opposition ranks.
Chief Minister
Pervez Khattak has initiated an investigation into the PTI’s MPAs in Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa (KP) who may have voted against their party’s directive. However,
he has glossed over if not ignored reports that his own party fielded rich
candidates in the hope they would be able to ‘outbid’ their rivals and thus
retain the PTI flock within the party’s enclosure. In the KP Assembly too it is
the PPP’s performance that is being looked at askance for garnering a
surprising 26 votes with barely any significant presence in that Assembly.
MQM-Pakistan’s
Farooq Sattar appears unnerved by only being able to get one Senate seat. He
has tried to shift the blame onto Asif Zardari’s alleged horse-trading. There
may be some truth in that allegation but the MQM’s own splintering is a factor
that is difficult to ignore.
Despite some
angst, the political class as a whole appears to have swallowed horse-trading
in the Senate elections as something not much could be done about in the
presence of a secret ballot. Nor do we hear any clear and unequivocal voices
criticising the demeaning of the democratic process for the upper house by
openly talked about corruption of the vote. This moral blindsidedness does not
bode well for the civilian side of our polity, already reeling under the attack
from non-elected forces and institutions.
The next chapter
unfolding is the election of the Senate Chairman and Deputy Chairman. Raza
Rabbani proved an outstanding Chairman, but his PPP’s position in the new arithmetic
in the upper house requires either an understanding with the PML-N (unlikely in
the climate of confrontation by the PPP that Asif Zardari has triggered of
late) or an attempt to gather the required 33 votes from the rest of the
opposition to add to its 20 and get over the majority finish line of 53 in a
house of 104. That opposition of course includes the PTI, but that is an uncertain
prospect. Failing to get the required numbers, the PPP may not be able to stop
the PML-N from having its way, given the momentum of its 15-seat victory that has
brought its tally in the upper house to 33, requiring 20 votes to romp home.
Momentum is what best describes the PML-N’s trajectory after Nawaz Sharif’s
removal as prime minister by the Supreme Court. This is evidenced not only by
the size of the rallies he has been addressing, with the latest in Gujrat just
one day after the Senate polls, but also by the fact that the PML-N has won
four by-elections in a row, the last in Sargodha the other day, with healthy
and increasing majorities.
Astute and
experienced observers of our political scene are not surprised by this turn of
events, ascribing it to Nawaz Sharif’s ‘defiance’, our political culture’s
penchant for siding with the underdog, and the PML-N’s vote bank in Punjab
intact if not growing. That electoral support may owe a great deal to the
political culture of patronage at which the PML-N has proved so adept over the
years, but in an amoral polity, it does not seem to bother too many.
The people of
this benighted country therefore seem stuck between the amorality of its
political class and the acceptance of that amorality, nay benefiting from it,
by a large section of the electorate.
The struggle for
democracy in Pakistan, which has consumed our energies and lives for 70 years,
was long considered a necessary road to traverse if the people’s rights were to
be advocated and achieved. The argument went that in contrast with military
dictatorship (the only other pole we have known in our existence), democracy,
no matter how flawed, offered the possibility of expressing the people’s needs
and grievances and with critical mass achieved, forcing incumbent governments
to pay heed to these issues and problems. But unfortunately, with the
powers-that-be bent upon strangling freedom of expression and dealing with
critical voices through enforced disappearances and the like, that argument
today regarding space for people’s struggles under even a flawed democracy
stands weakened, if not threatened.
It may be
premature to be venturing onto this turf when the Senate elections have just
concluded, the Senate Chairman and Deputy Chairman elections are looming and
the general elections are beckoning on the horizon, but serious thinkers,
advocates, and those struggling for the people’s voice and rights need to go
back to the strategy drawing board to rethink this paradigm and suggest
alternatives that can advance a floundering people’s rights cause. That may not
be possible without an updated knowledge of the world and Pakistan’s place in it
in the 21st century, with Pakistan’s internal political, economic
and social dynamic underpinning a possible new path and strategy to bring the
people back in force onto the stage of history.
rashed-rahman.blogspot.com
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