Cursing parliament
The row that has broken out over Imran Khan and Shaikh
Rasheed’s cursing parliament during their address at Tahirul Qadri’s rally in
Lahore the other day shows little sign of going away any time soon. While the
latter threatened to resign, the former cursed parliament for having allowed a
disqualified alleged ‘money launderer’ and ‘thief’ to become chief of a
political party. The reference is obviously to former prime minister Nawaz
Sharif. The following day, fiery denunciations of the erring duo accompanied
the adoption of a resolution of condemnation supported by all parties except
the (absent) PTI. Leader of the Opposition Syed Khursheed Shah posed a very
pertinent question to Imran Khan: “Do you want a dictator to lock up parliament
and then bow before him?” This was a pointed dig with reference to Imran Khan’s
self-confessed flirtation with General Musharraf in the hope that the military
dictator would appoint him prime minister. Asif Zardari, who had ‘shared’ the
stage at the Lahore rally with Imran Khan (albeit separated in time and space),
argued that the government’s set legislative agenda could be blamed for passage
of the bill appointing Nawaz Sharif head of the PML-N but not parliament. Foreign
Minister Khawaja Asif demanded that both the abusers be brought before the
house and arrested if they failed to turn up. The resolution adopted at the end
condemned both Imran Khan and Shaikh Rasheed, calling them vulgar and cheap. Away
from the heated atmosphere in the house, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi
felt it was wiser to leave the issue to parliament’s appropriate committee
(privilege of the house), since its committees were fully empowered. The PML-N
leadership met with Nawaz Sharif chairing and, amongst other matters,
contemplated bringing in legislation providing punishment for contempt of
parliament. Nawaz Sharif asked the rhetorical question why the cursers don’t
quit parliament. If the PTI’s track record is any guide, this is a distant prospect
only a few months from scheduled general elections when they had no hesitation
in returning to parliament after announcing their resignations during the 2014
Islamabad sit-in.
What Imran Khan seems bent upon is exposing his
inappropriate ways at every given opportunity. For one, he seems ignorant of
the difference between parliament as an institution and parliamentarians
(divided amongst discrete parties) who have the right to, and more often than
not do, differ with each other, but within the confines of parliamentary norms
and language. That is a skill Imran Khan has yet to acquire, partly at least
because of his infrequent appearances in the house (40 appearances reportedly
in the last four years). The distinction mentioned above and acceptable
parliamentary norms and language seems equally lost on the PTI legislators and
supporters. The former, following in their leader’s footsteps, repeated the
abuse against parliament and the presiding Deputy Speaker the following day. What
lies behind this behavior? The most likely and appealing explanation is that
Imran Khan (and his supporters) are frustrated at not being able to overthrow
the government (by hook or by crook) despite their best efforts over the last
four years. They need to be reminded that parliament is the supreme lawmaking
body in a democracy. It has given the country the basic law of the land, the
constitution. In principle only parliament has the right to amend that
constitution, although in our sorry history every military dictator has been
empowered by the judiciary to play around with that sacred document, which has
threatened again and again to turn Pakistan from a lawful society into one run
by the law of the jungle (might is right). But Imran Khan in particular has
shown over the years his narcissistic sense of entitlement, and this leads
logically to the dichotomy where he curses a parliament that has not endowed
him with the prime ministership he craves, but is likely to praise one that may
anoint him in future. However, Mr Khan needs to relearn the lesson that the
road to the highest office lies through parliament, the embodiment of the will
of the people.
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