AT a time when the country is facing mounting economic, political and security challenges, the government has been expending most of its energy on either countering the opposition or trying to arbitrarily amend the Constitution. This has become a fatal distraction from governance. It is also counterproductive. Far from weakening the opposition, it is injecting greater resolve in opposition ranks to push back against the government’s actions.

On the constitutional amendment, the government beat a hasty retreat as it failed to muster the necessary parliamentary numbers for the sweeping changes it sought.

Earlier this month, the PML-N government and its allies made a frantic attempt to push a controversial constitutional package through parliament in a politically motivated move. It kept the contents of the amendment under wraps, allowed no debate, yet expected lawmakers to blindly support what they had not even seen.

The aim of the judicial re-engineering was to undermine the independence of the superior judiciary and subordinate it to the executive. Members of the legal fraternity rightly condemned this as an assault on the Constitution. The proposed establishment of a constitutional court packed with judges and headed by a judge chosen by the prime minister will denude the Supreme Court of its jurisdiction in constitutional cases.

Another provision was designed to ensure the continuance of Qazi Faez Isa, who is due to retire in October, as chief justice. The move came after a series of clashes between the government and judiciary and official frustration with judgments seen as advantaging the opposition. But for all its frenetic efforts, the government faced a setback and was compelled to ‘postpone’ tabling the constitutional amendment for lack of the needed two-thirds majority. But it is now set to defy the Supreme Court order on reserved seats.

Meanwhile the government’s efforts to contain Imran Khan’s PTI have continued. It was exemplified by the restrictions and obstacles placed in the path of the party’s public rally in Islamabad and arrests of several of its leaders. Its Lahore jalsa encountered similar impediments. This was only the latest coercive measure taken against PTI, which over the past year has involved innumerable cases against its leaders.

Aggression, however, begets aggression. The opposition sought to resist such actions by becoming more combative. PTI lawmakers are adamant on continuing their protests in parliament and outside.

The PML-N-led government has failed to see it has more to lose from unremitting confrontational politics. The political calm needed for the country to solve its fundamental problems is obviously being upended by escalation in political tensions. This has fuelled uncertainty and left the public in a state of despondency. No surprise, then, that a recent opinion survey conducted by Ipsos found 89 per cent of people felt the country was headed in the wrong direction. Nine out of 10 Pakistanis lacked confidence in the country’s future.

This may seem like a rerun of an old movie but it heightens risks for the country’s stability.

Parliamentary proceedings have been reduced to theatrical displays of unseemly conduct and slanging matches between the treasury and opposition benches. Instead of debating the issues that confront the country and worry the public, parliamentarians on both sides of the aisle seek to demonise each other. Talk of a dialogue between the government and opposition has remained just that — talk about talks, with neither side showing any seriousness.

Every so often, statements in parliament by government leaders about a dialogue have not led to any outreach to the opposition. For their part, PTI leaders have reiterated they will only talk to the establishment as they see the government lacking any power or legitimacy. In any case, the constitutional amendment attempt, vigorously opposed by PTI, only widened the government-opposition divide.

All this has familiar echoes of the past — a government unwilling to engage with the opposition, jailing opposition leaders, trying to steamroll legislation and a desperate opposition in constant protest mode against a backdrop of economic gloom, weak governance and ubiquitous establishment pulling the strings from behind the scenes.

This seems like the rerun of an old movie. But it doesn’t minimise the risks for the country’s stability. The risks are even greater than in the past because of the intensely polarised state of the country and unprecedented confluence of challenges.

The economic challenge is, of course, the most consequential. The government might think that with the IMF expected to soon approve a $7 billion bailout package, the worst of the country’s economic troubles will be over. But the real task lies ahead to implement a tough Fund programme and take other difficult measures to stabilise an economy that is not yet out of the woods.

What the government seems unwilling to acknowledge is that political turmoil and uncertainty puts any sustainable economic recovery at risk. It also makes it harder to implement necessary but unpopular measures. An economic rebound can only be sustained by building a high level of confidence which requires a stable and predictable political environment.

The country’s deteriorating internal security situation also merits greater attention from the government. In the first eight months of the year, 757 people were reportedly killed in violent incidents. August was a particularly deadly month, with over 100 people killed in a fresh wave of militant attacks in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. On one day alone — Aug 26 — terrorist violence claimed the lives of over 50 people across Balochistan as militants stormed police stations, executed passengers on a bus, blocked roads and blew up railway tracks.

This should have prompted an urgent meeting of the National Security Committee. But the government did not convene one, while the interior minister made the astonishing claim that only one SHO (station house police officer) was enough to handle terrorism in the province. As terrorist activities continue in KP, with 29 attacks last month, the federal government and law- enforcing agencies need to address the mounting challenge in close collaboration with the PTI-run KP government, not in opposition to it. The KP government, headed by a volatile chief minister prone to verbal excess, also needs to show responsibility.

The test of the government is how it deals with these pressing challenges, what it delivers to the people and whether its actions earn the public’s respect and confidence. The PML-N coalition is falling short on all these counts.

The writer is a former ambassador to the US, UK and UN.

Published in Dawn, September 23rd, 2024