Tuesday 15 June has been the darkest day in the history of Pakistan’s Parliament when lawmakers of treasury and opposition benches hurled naked abuses and budget copies were thrown at each other in which one lady member was injured. This time it was departure from the past practice when treasury bench members started making noise when leader of the opposition Shahbaz Sharif took the floor. As soon as he started his speech the house was turned in to fish market where both sides started shouting at each other as if it was not enough soon both sides resorted to dirty abuses on each other never heard before without realising that large number of ladies were also present in the house. The media focussed their cameras on PTI law makers as they were in real hostile mood. Immediately a video clip went viral in which PTI member Awan was shown in most aggressive mood hurling naked abuses. This drama and video was witnessed by the people all over the world on social media. In the process a female member Malika Bukhari got hurt in her eyes due to budget copy thrown by someone. Later on allegations and counter allegations followed. In fact it was all planned by PTI in retaliation to opposition’s noise created by them when Finance Minister was delivering budget speech on 11 June. To some extent it is justified but they crossed the red lines and limits of decency. In fact any tom dick harry with no qualification except having strength of looted money can enter in to the parliament irrespective of his suitability. Election Commission of Pakistan if they had performed their duty according to the constitution more than 90 % members should have been declared illegible by applying Article 62 and 63 of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Both sides who are great preachers and lovers of democracy has been able to finally write Epitaph of democracy. What followed in Baluchistan Assembly that was also very shameful as the armoured vehicle was used to break the main gate of assembly closed by opposition. Well done democrats
It is true that more ugly scenes have been witnessed in the world parliaments where beating and throwing items on each other is very common, but now has become routine and culture of democracy in Pakistan. Let me take you back to history of Pakistan Shahid Ali Patwari was Deputy Speaker of East Pakistan Provincial Assembly. On 23 September 1958, he announced that an Awami League motion declaring speaker to be of ‘unsound mind’ had been carried. This led to pandemonium in the house which turned into a battle field. The members fought and grappled with each other and one of them hurled a paper weight which caught the deputy speaker Shahid in his head. He was injured and taken to hospital he died after two days. This was also one of the reasons of imposing Martial Law in Pakistan by President Iskander Mirza on 8 October 1958
It is so unfortunate that any government that comes in to power does not tolerate opposition from day one and disregards everything that is suggested by them. This state of affairs leads to unending confrontation that continues till the new elections are held. The present government has unique distinction not to give any importance to opposition as their most of the leaders are accused of massive corruption during their tenures. Most of the leaders of PML N are facing corruption charges in the NAB courts, former Prime Minister was sentenced to 8 years prison and managed to get permission through courts for treatment abroad for a period of 6 weeks but it is now over one year he has not returned. PM Imran Khan made two promises to the nation that he will bring back looted money and improve the condition of poor. None of the promise has been fulfilled, it is mainly due to non cooperation of opposition and spread of pandemic that people lost their jobs and promise of giving jobs to 15 million fell flat. Cost of living went very high; people were put under additional taxation. 20 million people who had invested in National Savings were shocked when the interest rate was brought down from 11.5 % to 5.5%. Opposition accuses government of poor governance and one sided accountability, as a result whenever any assembly session is convened we observe pandemonium and speaker being week has no choice except to adjourn the session. Over the years the conduct of parliamentarians has witnessed retardation and there is no hope of any positive development. It is impossible to practice parliamentary politics without having patience decency politeness, and courtesy that is something missing altogether
Under the circumstances the only choice is to go for presidential form of the government. This will give strength to the president and there will be end of black mailing by smaller groups that has been the distinguished feature of this democracy. All Lotas be debarred from taking part in any election. In fact ECP is an independent institution with lot of powers; it is time they play their proper role. I am sure if they carry out proper scrutiny of the candidates at the time of election in accordance with law 90 % existing crop of politicians shall stand disqualified.