Business Recorder Editorial Sept 20, 2018

President’s address

As is customary at the start of the parliamentary year, President Dr Arif Alvi addressed a joint session of the newly elected parliament on September 17, 2018. The government had approached the opposition before the session to ensure that the proceedings would go smoothly and without interruption. However, in a reflection of the ongoing controversy about the elections, points of order raised by PML-N leaders Khawaja Asif and Ayaz Sadiq were disallowed by Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser who was presiding. The Speaker quoted the rules regarding disallowing points of order before the President’s speech, but this was contested by former Speaker National Assembly Ayaz Sadiq, who quoted the precedent of allowing Shah Mahmood Qureshi to address the joint session before the president’s speech. However, on the Speaker Asad Qaiser refusing to budge, the opposition walked out, with the notable exception of the PPP, which refused the blandishments of the rest of the opposition to join them. Later, the protesting duo explained to the media that they wanted to remind the government of its commitment to form a parliamentary commission to examine the alleged rigging in the elections, a commitment they had yet to fulfil. As to the speech of the President itself, it was, as it should be, basically a wide-ranging exposition of the agenda of the PTI government. Its main plank remained the overarching theme of the PTI’s narrative, i.e. corruption and transparent governance. Dr Alvi expressed satisfaction at the continuation of the democratic process that had seen three elected governments replace each other through the ballot box in the last decade and the last two Assemblies complete their tenure. Certainly there is much verity in the President’s argument if one remembers that not so long ago, democracy struggled under the shadow of the 8^th Amendment and was then overthrown by Musharraf’s coup in 1999. President Alvi asserted that Pakistan had overcome terrorism and extremism and gave all the credit for it to the military, whose sacrifices he lauded and pointed out that the Pakistani armed forces had become the leading successful military against the menace of terrorism from whom the world could learn. While there is much weight in the President’s laudatory remarks about our military, there is a risk that we may get complacent and let our guard down against the reduced but by no means completely eliminated terrorist threat, especially if one notes that the President made no reference to the National Action Plan (NAP) against terrorism that had been drawn up by the political parties in unison. The President mentioned the woes of far-flung and underdeveloped regions and areas such as Balochistan without going into the nationalist insurgency in that province, and argued that regional, economic and social inequality and disparity needed to be tackled. But the President returned repeatedly to the leit motif of his address: parochial interests and rampant corruption had brought the country to its knees. To tackle this biggest challenge, the President asserted, the political leadership needed to unite around concerted efforts to strengthen accountability, counter corruption and address the serious economic challenges facing the country by enforcing austerity and simplicity while playing its part in providing social justice, health care and education. In particular he singled out Pakistan’s youth bulge as providing an opportunity for rapid progress provided they were ensured skills and employment. He reminded his audience of the debt trap that Pakistan was enmeshed in while the needs of the populace for affordable housing, water reservoirs and conservation, the issues around energy, agriculture, mother and child health, smaller families, encouraging the advance of women and youth through economic opportunities, sports and the arts required attention.

While nothing the President said deviated from the PTI script, the fact is that the time for rhetoric has passed. The government will now by judged not on its agenda or programme but on its performance. To be fair, it is early days, but so far the atmosphere of uncertainty that surrounds the new government is owed not a little bit to its appearance of floundering now that it has come face to face with the true depth and breadth of the problems facing the country. Given the ruckus by the opposition in the joint session, which some may consider marred the solemn occasion, it would be advisable for the government to create the parliamentary commission (that it has announced to form since then) on the July 25 vote as soon as possible in order for parliament to return to normal functioning.