Whether March 2020 can be a month of Change

March 2020 has arrived and we are standing at around different roads moving towards different directions. Nothing has yet come out from the pocket of PTI government except innocent  children sleeping on the roads seeing what Naya Pakistan mean to them.

Our so-called opposition with JUI on the front has repeatedly said that March 2020 is going to be the end of this government. On the other hand Sh Rasheed with Ch Fawad and Firdous Ashiq Awan are adamant that it is not so but on the contrary PTI government would rule this country for the next fifty years. Bilawal has now given another six months to the government by labeling Nawaz Sahrif as selected along with Imran khan.

How amusing this looks when PTI Ministers and supporters question each other that what we are, or are we what we could have been. An entire tehreek e Insaf is reveling in the amusement of its own inadequacies.

In February and now in coming March 2020 the beauty of political action has been replaced by the dull theatrics of shallow absurdity. So no change is visible in March 2020 or at least before coming budget in May or June 2020.

Where there should be vigor, there is inertia; where there should be passion, there is indifference, where there should be governing, there is aimlessness and where there should be opposition, there is retreat. The virility of political action has been replaced by the dull theatrics of shallow absurdity. It is depressing to pretend this is democracy.

Democracy is always defined as a system representing will of the people structured on well defined and well planned economic system for the welfare and development of the country. Political parties that can do this always emerge from the lower strata and not at the gun point. This happened only in 1968-72 of Pakistan’s history, when Bhutto’s PPP emerged from the people basically on very attractive economic agenda. But when in 1973 Bhutto distanced itself from the people and its economic agenda than it vanished leaving Bhutto with his hanging body in Adiala Jail. Some little efforts were made by Benazir and Nawaz Sharif but only to the extent of defying establishment that was not possible.

In Pakistan the misplaced belief always exists that somewhere the organic spirit of democracy can be manufactured to achieve ideal results. But In the end, it never works out.

Between the PTI, PML-N, PPP, PML-Q, MQM, JUI-F and BNP, how many informed debates have we witnessed on issues that are defining Pakistan and its people today? Not a single one.

Now when the US and Afghan Taliban are on the verge of signing a deal we are unable to do anything for the Kashmiri people or for the minorities of India including Muslims. The economy is groaning under the crushing weight of IMF’s conditionality’s with no way outs. The state-owned enterprises are bleeding billions of rupees every month. Each party had promised to reform them or sell them to save the economy from further hemorrhaging. None has.

But now with the blessings of Law Minister Farogh Nasim, retired Capt Anwar Mansoor Khan, who has just vacated the office of attorney general of Pakistan; and Shahzad Akbar, the head of the so-called Asset Recovery Unit, the PTI government’s looks standing against Judiciary. In fact the PTI and its backers have heavily relied on these three since coming to power in 2018. All three have eagerly defended authoritarian practices and struggled to succeed. But they lack the acumen and finesse with which Sharifuddin Pirzada’s served his masters?

The law minister worked tirelessly to ensure the army chief could get the extension he wanted, when the Supreme Court took up a petition questioning the constitutional and legal validity of the president’s decision which was made on the, presumably, binding advice of the prime minister.

In that case, the man publicly exposed along with the law minister was the attorney general, Anwar Mansoor, as both their answers, in the form of summaries and notifications fell short of what was being demanded by the apex court.

Then, of course, there was the verdict of the special court trying former military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf under Article 6 of the Constitution that found him guilty of high treason and sentenced him to death. While this verdict brought a rebuke from the military spokesman who talked of unease at the decision in the military rank and file, Anwar Mansoor and Shahzad Akbar addressed a joint press conference where the attorney general questioned the sanity of one of the three judges.

The latest fiasco has come during Justice Qazi Faez Isa’s case before the Supreme Court of the Supreme Judicial Council that is proceedings against him for alleged non-declaration of his family’s assets.

Appearing before a 10-member Supreme Court bench, the former attorney general made certain remarks about the judges that the court took umbrage at. He was asked to either furnish evidence or submit a written apology to the court. (The charge was so outrageous that the court applied reporting restrictions on it). The law minister and the ARU chief were both present in the court and left with the attorney general, who by the evening had resigned citing a Pakistan Bar Council demand. Later, he also submitted his apology to the court, expressing unreserved contrition.

Thereafter former attorney general told the media that his remarks were not his alone and had been agreed on by others in government, implying the law minister. During a TV interview, Farogh Nasim accused Anwar Mansoor of lying (‘jhoot keh rahe hein’). In short, they were at each other’s throats.

Now Bar Councils are demanding resignation of Mr. Nasim once famously likened ‘Altaf [Hussain] bhai’ to Nelson Mandela when the MQM founder had not fallen foul of the establishment and happily continued to offer his considerable legal expertise to causes of import to bhai and bhai’s supporters.

The 116-page response submitted with the apex court by advocate Munir A Malik on behalf of his client Qazi Faez Isa, pointed out that several personalities had concealed their assets abroad through offshore companies, and PM Imran was prominent amongst them.

Justice Isa maintained that his wife and children had never concealed any assets abroad using offshore companies, and the properties they own were bought in their own names.

As for politicians, a request to Interpol to arrest and extradite former finance minister Ishaq Dar from UK (London to be precise) to Pakistan was tossed in the bin by the international law-enforcement body as it ascertained the request to be politically motivated. Now the PTI government is trying to repeat it in case of Nawaz Sharif.

So the game is moving onward with clashes and clashes of institutions with no place to work on peoples issues. This is what we have to see in the Naya Pakistan.