The die is cast

Amidst much anticipation, the Multi-Party Conference (MPC) was held in Islamabad on September 20, 2020, hosted by the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and its young chairperson Bilawal-Bhutto Zardari. Almost the entire array of the opposition, comprising 14 parties, was represented by their leadership. The only party absent was the Jamaat-i-Islami, which has decided to take solo flight.

After speeches by the leaders, including Asif Ali Zardari, Nawaz Sharif (both by video link), Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Shahbaz Sharif, Bilawal and others, the MPC adopted a 26-point declaration that covered the entire gamut of things considered awry by the opposition. This includes the decision to name the campaign against the government the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM). The PDM demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Imran Khan and announced an escalating three-phase protest campaign starting with public meetings from October 2020, bigger rallies by December, culminating in a long march on Islamabad in January 2021.

The declaration demanded an end to the establishment's interference in politics, new free and fair elections after electoral reform that would block any role for the military and intelligence agencies, release of political prisoners, withdrawal of cases against journalists, implementation of the National Action Plan against terrorism, speeding up the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project, and across-the-board accountability under a new law.

The MPC consensus was to use all political and democratic options, including no-confidence motions, en masse resignations from parliament, etc, to oust the government imposed through manipulated elections. Parliament, the MPC concurred with Maulana Fazlur Rehman's contention, had been reduced to a rubber-stamp. There was a call for the sacking of Asim Bajwa over his alleged foreign and local assets beyond means. The government was accused of neglect in halting the incrementally growing sectarian tensions in the country. The MPC deplored the institution of cases against upright judges and supported the resolution of the conference held by the lawyers on September 19, 2020 regarding the procedure for the appointment of judges for the superior judiciary.

The MPC also raised concern about the troubling trend of persons going 'missing', rejected non-party local bodies polls, and demanded implementation of the Aghaz-i-Haqooq-i-Balochistan package. It demanded the constitution of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to present the country's history since 1947 in objective fashion. The moot agreed to revisit the Charter of Democracy to improve it in the light of experience.

While the MPC's conference play and its outcome were not surprising (even predictable), the highlight of the conference was the speech by Nawaz Sharif. Pulling no punches, he took to task the 'parallel' government that was actually running the show from behind the scenes, calling it the root of all the country's problems and arguing it was not so much Imran Khan and his government that was the target but what he dubbed the 'state above the state'. He bemoaned the existence of either martial laws or 'parallel' governments in our history. This dictated, according to Nawaz Sharif, the foremost priority of getting rid of the non-representative, incapable, selected government and more importantly, getting rid of the system targeting people, the opposition, and judges of good repute.

Nawaz Sharif urged the MPC to suggest a comprehensive plan for ensuring the Constitution's supremacy, respect for the vote, and resolving the basic issue of the 'parallel' government. He demanded that the Hamoodur Rehman Commission's recommendations be made public in order to learn the necessary lessons in the light of the East Pakistan debacle in 1971. If such changes as he was demanding were not carried out, Nawaz Sharif asserted, the country could once again suffer an irreversible loss. He urged the MPC to take fearless decisions to protect democracy given the frequent military interventions in our history that produced the anomaly of no prime minister being able to complete a five-year tenure. Article 6 of the Constitution, Nawaz Sharif continued, was unable to stop the Generals' adventurism, which yielded 20 years of military rule since 1973. The judiciary too could not be spared for its role in validating military takeovers, going to the extent of giving military dictators the right to play with the Constitution.

Elected leaders had been murdered, hanged, declared thieves and traitors, driven into exile and disqualified for life. Nawaz Sharif, in an honest but belated admission, regretted his mistake of not abolishing the National Accountability Bureau set up by General Musharraf for malign purposes that by now stand out in bold relief. Sharif also dilated on suspicions regarding the corruption within the ranks of the holier-than-thou ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI). He pointed to the unprecedented (even for Pakistan) gagging of the media and picking up journalists not kowtowing to the officially certified truth. Nawaz lambasted the PTI government for its handling of the economy, inflation, the food crisis and Pakistan's international relations.

The government's response was even more predictable than the MPC's discourse. Their spokesmen trotted out the same, tired mantra of the opposition demanding to be let off the accountability hook and not much else. Frankly, this diatribe is by now producing diminishing returns in the absence of concrete achievements by a government still floundering two years into its tenure.

In contrast, Nawaz Sharif's hard hitting, scorching speech has set the political horizon on fire. In a development familiar to those aware of the country's political past, an incumbent government has managed to push almost the entire political opposition into an embrace that promises once again to bring the government to its knees. The main responsibility for this juncture is the inability of the PTI government to divest itself of its aggressive, divisive, 'container' narrative after coming into power and dragging politics into an abusive gutter with little positive to provide relief from the tedium.

Welcome to another possible Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD) type mass agitation. Such movements may not always have achieved their ultimate goal, but they may find ready, combustible tinder at the level of the masses chafing under the misrule of the PTI.

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Copyright Business Recorder, 2020