Completion of five-year term is a biggest democratic achievement

Without any doubt, it will be a first in country’s political history if this government manages to successfully and peacefully transfer power to the next elected government.

At the same time, it could be one of the ruling party’s biggest achievements, which is actually more impressive than it sounds.

President Zardari’s sly navigation is often credited for this achievement but the principal opposition party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is equally praiseworthy.

The PML-N by suggesting something absolutely disruptive only tempted to throw off tag of friendly opposition. Its support to the government, even in some extra-constitutional actions, helped the system to prevail.

However, the real achievement is yet to be witnessed. There are plenty of twirls to be ignored in order to attain the required results. The two major parties are reportedly holding discussions over all contentious issues.

But the issue of writing the inglorious letter to the Swiss authorities to reopen graft cases against President Asif Ali Zardari is reportedly biggest stumbling block between the two.

Apparently, the Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) wants to delay the court’s orders whereas the PML-N wants to resolve the issue before the interim setup. There can be one possibility to form a commission to write the letter and put the government to proceed with.

However, the PML-N wants to also fight the allegations of a market by parties like Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). It wants talks between opposition and treasury benches to be made public and that they should be formalized.

Letting bygones be bygones, the PML-N wants to move on but the Bhurban Accord and the like didn’t leave a good taste for them to be considering things along those lines.

The paramount importance is in the continuity and fluency of democratic norms in the country. The current assemblies were elected by masses for a defined period of five years. Hence, the PPP should not lose its mandate, not in the legal sense of the word in any case.

If the PML-N and PPP manage to make it till February, a pat should be on the back for both the major parries and all democracy-loving forces.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=29582

Posted by Faisal Farooq on Jul 24 2012. Filed under Opinion, Pakistan, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.