Unmitigated debacle
Rashed Rahman
The combined opposition’s
no-confidence move against the Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani ended in complete
disaster for its authors. In a house of 103 Senators, 53 votes were required to
remove the Chairman. At first glance, and especially when the full strength of
64 opposition Senators stood up to support the moving of the motion in the
house, it seemed a done deal. But when it came to the secret voting on the issue,
lo and behold, the opposition could only garner 50 votes, three short of the
majority required for the motion to be carried.
The opposition appeared shell
shocked in its joint press conference after the debacle. The brave face they
tried to put on things failed to hide or camouflage their disappointed expressions
or body language. How were 64 sure votes reduced to 50? Reports speak of five
ballots being deliberately defaced so they became invalid, while nine others
betrayed the mandate of their party. The total 14 ‘traitors’ belong mainly to
the two largest opposition parties, the PPP and the PML-N, with some from minor
parties thrown in for good measure. Did they vote ‘according to their
conscience’, as some government spokespersons have tried to paint the picture,
or was there something more to it?
There are reports of
‘pressure’ being brought to bear before the crucial vote on the Senators who
reneged on party commitments. According to these reports, some were threatened
with exposure and worse on the basis of some hanky panky skeletons rattling
around in their cupboards. Others were reportedly just threatened with dire
consequences if they did not fall in line. Then there are reports of a big
business tycoon meeting Asif Zardari in prison on the eve of the vote, carrying
the ‘message’ that if his party did not play ball, it would lose its Sindh
government. These reports suggest the PPP co-Chairperson buckled under and
instructed some of his Senators accordingly. To justify this conclusion, these
reports quoted Asif Zardari before all these shenanigans began in the upper
house that he had neither brought Sadiq Sanjrani onto the Senate Chairman’s
seat, nor would he remove him. It may be recalled that urban legend has it that
Asif Zardari was the brains behind the toppling of the Balochistan coalition
government headed by the PML-N, after which the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP)
suddenly sprouted like Minerva from the head of Zeus and was duly installed as
the provincial government. Needless to say, this political legerdemain ensured
Sadiq Sanjrani, a relatively unknown politician from Balochistan, would be
elevated to the august office of Chairman Senate. The PPP, Chairman Bilawal
Bhutto Zardari included, failed to convincingly refute these reports. But that
does not let the PML-N or other rogue opposition Senators off the hook.
Opposition candidate for replacement
Chairman Senate Hasil Bizenjo, chief of the Balochistan-based National Party,
responded to a journalist’s question after the opposition defeat by saying the
renegade Senators were new ISI chief Lieutenant-General Faiz Hameed’s ‘people’.
That has earned him a summons to a court in Gujranwala where a petition has
been filed against him for ‘insulting’ the head of a sensitive national
institution. The game of the judicialisation of politics that set in with the
Panama Papers case is still in full swing therefore. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has
said Jehangir Tareen and Punjab Governor Chaudhry Sarwar also contacted PPP
Senators before the vote. Readers are free to choose which quarters more
effectively succeeded in sabotaging the opposition’s move, if indeed that was
the case.
Not unexpectedly, the debacle
has started a round of recriminations and finger pointing at each other by the
PML-N and the PPP. Khwaja Asif clearly indicated in a television interview the
other day that the traditional suspicions between the two strange bedfellows or
allies had been resurrected and their ‘unity’ was now imperilled. Sherry Rehman,
leader of the PPP in the Senate, gave back as good as her party had got from
Khwaja Asif.
Two developments point to the
shape of things to come. One, both the PPP and PML-N have set up fact-finding
committees to identify the rogue Senators in their ranks and punish them for
their betrayal. However, much scepticism reins as reports say both parties know
the names of these Senators but are reluctant to expose them publicly for fear
of unknown consequences, internally and from the powers-that-be accused of this
gerrymandering. The fact-finding committees therefore are not expected to
achieve any success. Two, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, credited with the lubrication
of opposition unity against the government, is bending his back to prevent the
opposition fragmenting. This too increasingly looks like a mission impossible.
Belatedly, and after being
mauled by the secret voting in the no-confidence motion, the opposition has
woken up to the need for changing this rule to an open show of hands in such
matters. That too may fall foul of the opposition’s disarray.
What the combined opposition
perceived as the opening shot across the government’s bows preliminary to a full-fledged
agitation against the government has fallen at the first hurdle in spectacular
fashion. Whether the bruised opposition can recover from this debacle and mount
a serious challenge to the incumbents is now an open question.
The speculations around the
bringing to power of the PTI by the establishment and its full support to the incumbents
over the past year are increasingly becoming received wisdom. Pakistan has
therefore come full circle again to an establishment-dominated and -controlled
polity, a perception that has cast a dark cloud over the claims of a
continuation of the parliamentary democratic system. Unfortunately, as the
Senate opposition debacle shows, the culture of collaboration with the
establishment by sections of the political class at the expense of integrity
and political commitment seems healthy, alive and kicking.
What is an intriguing question
is whether the ‘all eggs in one basket’ approach of the establishment in
supporting the PTI to the hilt against all comers can work in the face of the
demonstrated incompetence of the PTI in government. If the PTI government
continues to fall flat on its face, especially where the economy is concerned,
how long will this unstinted support appear feasible? And if it does not, have
the pillorying and shoving against the wall of the opposition left room for an
alternative? If not, where will we go from here?
rashed-rahman.blogspot.com
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