ISLAMABAD: There was unanimity of views among lawmakers belonging to the treasury and opposition in the National Assembly on Monday that politicians were mainly responsible for the lack of civilian supremacy in the country, but they toed their respective party lines and hit out at each other while explaining reasons for it.

The main opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) was of the view that there could be no civilian rule in the country without giving “respect to vote” and ensuring fair and transparent elections whereas the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) called for ending corruption and hereditary politics for establishing civilian supremacy in the country.

The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) called for setting up a truth and reconciliation commission to fix responsibility for past mistakes and said politicians’ “double standards” had actually alienated the nation from the system and politics.

Admission came during a debate in NA on Alvi’s address to parliament

These views were expressed by lawmakers while taking part in a much-delayed debate on the mandatory address of President Dr Arif Alvi to the joint sitting of the parliament on August 20 last year.

In their speeches, the members also kept on mentioning the briefing given by the military leadership to the parliamentary leaders on July 1 on the worsening regional situation with respect to the scenario in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of US troops.

Referring to the security briefing, PML-N’s parliamentary leader Khawaja Asif termed the situation in the region “alarming” and warned if the situation worsened in Pakistan then it would become difficult for them to face it with so much fault lines on the basis of religion, sub-nationalities and provinces.

According to Khwaja Asif, who had served as the country’s foreign minister during the PML-N government, “the situation is so alarming that the facade can cave in at any moment”.

“If God forbid, the Afghan situation causes any negative impact on us, then we perhaps will not be able to handle it,” he warned.

According to the PML-N leader, the solution to all problems lay in free and fair elections. He regretted that after every elections the country plunged into crisis.

Khawaja Asif held politicians responsible for the present state of affairs in the country as, according to him, they had been seeking the “establishment’s” support since 1950 merely to acquire power.

The PML-N leader said he considered the people at the top in politics, army, judiciary, bureaucracy and media as “establishment”. These people are in hundreds and not even in thousands, he said.

“When we call these (forces) then they gradually encroach upon our territory,” he said, adding: “Today our territory has shrunk.”

“In the last seven decades, the politicians had negotiated with the establishment only for the sake of power and surrendered (their space),” he added.

The PML-N leader said the country would continue to face a crisis-like situation if “politicians continue looking towards Pindi”, a reference to the army’s General Headquarters (GHQ). He said politicians had played the role of “facilitators” to the military regimes.

“Commenting on my budget speech, my brother Noor Alam Khan said it seemed that my software has been updated. If the present situation continues, software of all of us will be updated,” he said, while referring to his speech during the last month budget session in which he did not make any mention of the establishment and mostly talked about general issues and the budget.

Terming the security briefing “candid”, he said it was said in the briefing that all the governments, including the military regimes, had committed mistakes in the past.

“When all of us have committed mistakes, then we should go to the people to seek a fresh mandate and secure the territory that has been encroached upon by the institutions,” he said. He asked Speaker Asad Qaiser to persuade his party’s leadership to empower the parliament as it was the key to solving all problems.

The PML-N leader said they could establish civilian supremacy only by giving respect to the vote.

Federal Minister for Higher Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mehmood endorsed most of the points raised by the PML-N MNA from Sialkot, but said Khawaja Asif should have talked about “hereditary politics” and the politicians who had made billions after entering politics.

Raja Pervez Ashraf of the PPP said on one hand Prime Minister Imran Khan talked about fair and transparent elections and on the other, the Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs had announced during the election campaign in Azad Kashmir that the government would spend Rs10 million per vote on the basis of victory margin in the constituencies.

Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2021