Friday, September 7, 2018

Business Recorder Editorial Sept 8, 2018

A new President

As widely expected, Dr Arif Alvi sailed easily to victory in the presidential election, aided and abetted by a divided opposition. Dr Alvi’s credentials as the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf’s (PTI’s) candidate are beyond question. A founding member and part of the core leadership of the PTI, he stood with Prime Minister Imran Khan through thick and thin. Being a party loyalist, PTI and its supporters are obviously delighted at the ascent to the highest constitutional post in the country of someone who has spent years struggling for the success of the party. However, this very record raises doubts in other quarters about the impartiality of the new incumbent because of partisan political affiliation. President-elect Alvi attempted to allay such concerns in his first interaction with the media after the presidential election by promising to be a president for all parties, not just the incumbent PTI, and for all Pakistanis, irrespective of political leanings. This is of course as it should be, given the largely ceremonial role of the president as a symbol of the federation. The mandate received by the new president saw him pip the combined electoral college votes of the two opposition candidates, Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, by 44 votes. Had the opposition combined to field a single candidate, the result may not have been very different. However, the controversy over the PPP embarking on a solo flight by not going along with the rest of the opposition’s candidate ensured that Alvi’s expected victory turned into a sure thing. PML-N president and prime ministerial candidate for whom the PPP did not vote, Shahbaz Sharif, has extended an olive branch to the PPP to let bygones be bygones and appealed to the entire opposition to combine inside parliament to mount an effective opposition to the PTI government. That is the role of any opposition, to ensure the incumbent government is held to its election promises to the people. It remains to be seen though whether the person perceived as having thrown a spanner in the works of opposition unity, PPP Co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari will respond positively to Shahbaz Sharif’s appeal or not. There are all kinds of theories afloat arguing that Asif Zardari is attempting through his non-cooperation with the PML-N to keep the powers that be sweet and fend off the alleged corruption cases against him and sister Faryal Talpur that have been ‘resurrected’ of late.

The other theory doing the rounds is about the fragility of the main opposition party, the PML-N’s ranks. This theory revolves around the number of votes for Dr Alvi over and above what he would naturally have been expected to garner. The PML-Q’s Chaudhry Pervez Elahi, now occupying the Punjab Assembly Speaker’s position, is said to have made inroads into the PML-N’s main power bastion of Punjab and persuaded at least some of the party’s members to aid Dr Alvi’s victory by ‘spoiling’ their votes. Chaudhry Pervez Elahi has denied the charge, arguing that he was against forward bloc politics. All this swirling speculation may or may not have any weight, but an atmosphere of questioning the solidity and loyalty of the PML-N’s ranks under the pressure the party is being subjected to these days is rife, based on the well known tendency in the past of Muslim Leagues splintering when the going gets tough. The opposition as a whole has still to show that it is capable of overcoming its internal divisions as reflected in its performance in the presidential election. For the sake of a credible and vibrant parliamentary democracy, the opposition parties perhaps need to heed Shahbaz Sharif’s well intentioned advice and close ranks to keep the PTI government on its toes.

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