Multiple fronts
The Pakistan
Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) government has shown a rare talent for opening up
multiple fronts instead of concentrating efforts and minds on priority areas.
Arguably the single most important of these is the annual budget. In a situation
where the economic management of the government since it came to power last
year has been, to put it politely, controversial, it behoved the treasury
benches on June 14, 2019 to ensure, as is the norm, that the proceedings of the
budget session of the National Assembly went smoothly. Instead, in an
inexplicable display, it was the treasury benches that disrupted the session by
constantly interrupting the Leader of the Opposition Shahbaz Sharif whenever he
rose to speak on the budget on the invitation of the Speaker. This behaviour
has sparked off all kinds of speculation and conspiracy theories, chief amongst
them being the outlandish notion that the treasury benches were under
instructions from Prime Minister Imran Khan to disrupt the proceedings to
divert attention from the ‘unpopular’ parts of the budget. But that is not the
end of the government’s difficulties in getting a difficult budget passed in
difficult times. Three coalition partners of the government, the Balochistan
National Party-Mengal (BNP-M), Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and the Pakistan
Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), are reportedly dragging their feet in helping the
government pass the budget. Of these, the last two are in a different category
from the first. They may simply be using the opportunity afforded by the
government needing their support in the budget session to extract concessions
for themselves, not necessarily abandoning the coalition altogether. The BNP-M,
however, is a different kettle of fish. For years now, its chief, Akhtar
Mengal, has been attempting to draw attention to and redressal of Balochistan’s
grievances, which BNP-M has summarised in the six points that formed the basis
of its joining the governing coalition. These are: recovery of missing persons,
implementation of the National Action Plan, implementation of the six percent
quota for Balochistan in the federal government, immediate repatriation of
Afghan refugees and the construction of dams in the province to resolve the
acute water crisis. These are more or less the same six points Akhtar Mengal
had presented in a petition before the Supreme Court some years ago. That
petition did not bear fruit, and the agreement with the PTI remains
unimplemented. The BNP-P therefore appears to be veering towards leaving the
coalition and joining the ranks of the opposition. This development has
encouraged the opposition PPP to meet the BNP-M leadership to persuade it in
this direction, followed in rapid succession (and perhaps alarm) by a PTI
delegation led by Defence Minister Parvez Khattak. The outcome of these
deliberations is not yet known, but the implications are clear. If the BNP-M
with four seats in the National Assembly departs, the government may well be up
against it to get the budget passed, enjoying as it does a bare five seat
majority. That could open up a whole new can of worms, including the
possibility of the government falling.
The PTI needs to
focus on what is important in terms of priority. Getting the budget passed is
at the top of the list. To achieve this goal, the government needs to reassure
its coalition allies, particularly the BNP-M, that their concerns will be
addressed and on that basis asking for their support to the budget. Similarly,
it needs to go back to the drawing board to reconcile some of the contradictory
aims it seems to be pursuing. Given its precarious majority, the government
needs to reach out to and ask for the cooperation of the opposition. But this
cannot at present be reconciled with their pillorying of that same opposition
on a daily basis. The arrests of Asif Zardari and Fayal Talpur of the PPP and Hamza
Shahbaz of the PML-N, with more arrests of opposition leaders threatened, is
hardly conducive to cooperation across the aisles.
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