PESHAWAR: Former prime minister and PML-N central leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Saturday said the military’s interference in national politics was to blame for the current economic and political instability in the country as well as the failure of the prevailing system of governance to deliver the goods.

“Problems occur when the [military] establishment crosses its Constitutional limits. Parliament stands paralysed and we all are responsible for it,” Mr Abbasi told a presser at the Peshawar Press Club.

Accompanied by former Pakistan Peoples Party leader Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, former senator Lashkari Raisani and former MNA Khwaja Mohammad Khan Hoti, the PML-N leader said political and financial uncertainty of the current scale was unseen in national history.

He said unfortunately, politics had turned into hatred, while thirst for power had overshadowed the will of political parties to resolve the country’s problems.

Insists current system of governance lacks capacity to address national issues

Mr Abbasi said the prevailing system of governance lacked the capacity to address problems.

He said the system’s failure was to blame for the current political turmoil.

“It is not possible to resolve issues under this system,” he said.

“We are not talking about another system of governance because the solution [to problems] is there in the Constitution,” he said.

The PML-N leader said the system had failed to recognise what ailed the country.

“It is imperative to wake up all those at the helm of affairs in order to find a solution to the problems,” he said.

Mr Abbasi said actions of the military establishment that was part of the system as well as some court verdicts that might or might not be according to the law had influenced the political system.

He said all state institutions and political forces should sit together to address national challenges.

“This is a collective responsibility and no individual or any institution can be exonerated. We all are responsible for it and the deficiencies in the Constitutions can be discussed,” he said.

The PML-N leader said all political parties held a sitting after the 2014 Army Public School attack to develop a consensus about a crackdown on militants and that led to a military offensive, which successfully eliminated militancy from the country.

He said the country’s ‘political elite’ should think beyond their political parties.

Mr Khokhar said the ‘National Dialogue on Reimagining Pakistan’ was meant to bring people of different political parties to a platform to find solutions to national issues and challenges.

“There is suffocation within political parties. You are asked by the party to tender resignation when you voice your concerns,” he said.

The former PPP leader said political governments couldn’t defy their limitations.

“Nobody can talk about the missing person issue, prolonged detention of MNA Ali Wazir, and the Gwadar issue,” he said.

Mr Hoti complained that no political party talked about the prevailing political uncertainty. He demanded fair trial for lawmaker Ali Wazir.

Published in Dawn, January 29th, 2023