Will any Pakistani prime minister ever complete a full term in office
On May 31, 2018, high-fiving the troubled, complicated and maddening history of Pakistan’s democracy, one more government finished its full term. It is the second government to attain this honour. Things are the way they should be, at least on the fundamentals of the functioning of a democratic entity, one flawed but a full tenure of one government at a time. For a country to be strengthened on all levels in the forever-term, the first step is the functioning of a government to do the most important, the basic: complete its full term. One box ticked. Mind you, only one.
The next one is a tad more complex, and hitherto, as elusive and as fantastical as snowfall in Lahore: completion of a full-term by a prime minister. Now this one is a loaded statement, fraught with assumptions, innuendos, wishful thinking, false optimism, closing of eyes to Pakistan’s history of military coups, overreaching generals, mud-wrestling of dictators with the Constitution of Pakistan, and a hope that the sun may rise in the west some day. My Pollyana-ish optimism makes me a misfit any given day in the cynical, bleak and glass-is-always-half-empty world of Twitter, but you know, what middle age gives you other than a slowing metabolism, greyer hair and decreasing grey cells is an oversized idea of a better tomorrow.
May the next prime minister, whoever that may be – Shehbaz Sharif, Imran Khan, Maryam Nawaz Sharif, Asif Ali Zardari (I mean who knows in Pakistan), or a Martian (a khalaimakhlooq in the words of the now-very-wise-in-hindsight Nawaz Sharif) - finish his or her full term, come what may. A big box will be ticked then.
My impartial reservations about one political party or the other aside, and my honest misgivings about one political leader or the other be ignored for a word or two dozen, there is nothing that would ever deter me from my absolute repudiation of the process of disqualification of one elected prime minister after the other. Being an avid observer of political dynamics of Pakistan since I was in school, and despite my rolling of eyes at one antic or the other of our elected rulers, and my genuine criticism of their oft-dubious suitability to be in the highest office of the country, what goes without saying: their unsavoury dismissal from office, on one righteousness-coated pretext or the other, have never had and would never have my endorsement. Me, in this case, is not some elevated sense of who I may envision myself as; I merely speak as a patriotic citizen of my beloved homeland.
Unless it is one of those House of Cards level constitutional breaches that may harm the country for a long time, there is no real reason why even a “bad” prime minister may not be allowed to complete its full term. Plenty of examples of heads of state who should be doing anything but telling an entire country, and in Donald Trump’s case, the entire world, what to do, but they finish their term and leave when they should. Some of them do make a sassy and a rather tastelessly triumphant comeback. Remember George Bush the Second?
My point is as simple as pouring a glass of water for a child, or boiling an egg; okay, I retract the egg analogy. Boiling an egg that is of perfect consistency is an art not mastered by all. Before I digress faster than Kim K takes a selfie, here is my point: the only way to have an elected head of state be out of office is through vote. You don’t like the policies, vote sensibly next time. You don’t like the personal ethics of a ruling family, vote ‘em out, man. You’ve an issue with the way they treat the country’s treasury like their personal ATM, blacklist them through your vote. You strongly object to the economic mess your country is entangled in, vote the good-for-nothing dudes out. Do it through vote, not through non-adherence to a parliamentary structure, stamping of feet that are enclosed in boots that are heavy and black, and flapping of robes that are black and Babajee-tailored.
Now that my not-so-subtle reference to the Machiavellian overreaching of the faujis and the judges is out of the way, I go back to my political pontification that comes as easy to most of us as dipping Bakeri biscuits in a morning mug of tea. Don’t boycott parliament. Don’t dharna. Just vote. Yes, vote. The four-letter word that can literally and metaphorically change the destiny of your country. Duh.
You see, what you do to others comes back to kick you in the butt when you least expect it, and harder than your Zegna can protect you from. Gloating statements and smirking tweets of Sharif and familyin 2012 over Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani’s disqualification read like mean-spirited, giggly rants of vicious middle-schoolers who forget there’s always a bigger bully behind the bleachers. Karma is like the IT clown, it will get ya no matter how much ya run. This is a well-meaning, an eyebrow arched, advice for the prime minister-aspirant Imran Khan and his legions of supporters and followers: What happened to Gillani and Sharif, without going into the full list of other deposed/ousted/disqualified/disgraced prime ministers, can happen to you. Panama Papers or a Swiss bank, there will be other countries, other accusations, things to explain, debacles to justify. What has been made the norm for all prime ministers, what makes you think, Mr Khan, that you would be the special one who would be spared? Don’t make plans to get too cosy in that majestic house on the hill. Not your Banigala estate, but the one house that really matters. Yes, that one, pssst, on the Constitution Avenue.
In the meantime, in the sweltering June, a mostly fasting and a generally groaning and whining Pakistan awaits the next post-Eid general elections on July 25, 2018. Vote: que sera sera. All I wish for this June morning is a leader and a party that will make Pakistan their one and only priority. The rest you see follows. Solid policies for systemic progress; long-term planning for an economic revival; strengthening of institutions; substantial laws to improve the lives of millions who vote and wait for things to be better; ways to alleviate poverty, inflation, unemployment, disease; plans to improve healthcare, education, the legal system; ensure a system where safety of life is a given, and improvement of life a promise to be kept; a workable foreign policy that focuses on forging a modern, far-reaching, global diplomatic framework; formation of good relationships with all neighbours instead of merely keeping the borders safe; and above all, making of a Pakistan that is for all.
Yeah, yeah, I wish for the stars, but hey, what’s the point of dreaming unless your dreams are of Elon Musk level?