THE one question that was weighing on many minds as these lines were being written on Saturday afternoon was whether the simple question of who has a parliamentary majority and the right to govern Pakistan will be decided on the floor of the House or elsewhere.

One can easily run out of adjectives and breath, recapping events from last Sunday to today in what was a dizzying flurry of activity and events, with only one clear fact emerging — the PTI will try and cling to power at all cost, contemptuously violating the Constitution and the rule of law.

After the governing party lost its majority when most of its allies and some two dozen of its own members refused to prop it up, as had been the case till then, the government tarnished whatever democratic credentials it may have had left in delaying the no-confidence vote in the Assembly.

Finally, last Sunday, instead of ordering a vote on the no-confidence resolution as mandated by the law, National Assembly Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri adjourned the House after a ‘ruling’ through which he rejected the no-confidence resolution as the result of a foreign regime-change conspiracy.

All this throwing the toys out of the pram will reflect poorly on Imran Khan and some of his top aides.

It was clear that the whole farce was scripted ahead of time, because as soon as the session began, Law Minister Fawad Chaudhry read out a statement calling the no-trust move the result of a conspiracy and the deputy speaker agreed before giving his infamous ruling.

Literally the following minute, PTV cut to the prime minister, announcing he had advised the president to dissolve the National Assembly, and the president promptly followed the advice. The latter also tweeted he was appointing Imran Khan as prime minister until the appointment of a caretaker chief executive.

By that evening, the Supreme Court justices had taken cognisance of events, conferred at the chief justice’s residence and issued notices to the government and all political parties in the fray to present their arguments and set Monday for the start of hearings. But they refused to order a stay.

Read: The Speaker versus the Constitution

From eminent legal minds to politicians to other leaders of public opinion, all were near unanimous in condemning this gross violation of the Constitution by the PTI. The only ones who seemed thrilled were PTI top guns who tweeted photos of each other rejoicing over the travesty.

What followed from Monday to Friday was a tense five-day period as the five-member bench led by the chief justice heard all sides in detail and asked questions of lawyers, some of which led to misgivings about what the court would do. The long history of our judiciary is far from inspiring.

By Friday, when even the country’s top law officer Attorney General Khalid Jawed Khan refused to defend the deputy speaker’s ruling but pleaded that fresh elections be allowed as a way out of the impasse, some feared that the deputy speaker’s ruling would be ruled illegal but fresh polls would be seen as the way forward.

But when the ruling came later that evening, the Constitution was seen as the winner and the nasty and obnoxious doctrine of necessity seemed to have been buried. The court ordered that the ruling was illegal and unconstitutional and restored status quo ante.

This effectively meant that the deputy speaker’s ruling had been set aside and a session of the National Assembly was ordered to decide the vote of no-confidence. A defiant Imran Khan, with no legal leg to stand on, still seemed determined to cling to power whatever the consequences.

As I write this, my deadline has come and gone, and I am still relying on the generosity of my editors to allow me an extra hour. Even then, if nothing is clarified, then perhaps I will send this piece with just one bottom line: delaying the inevitable won’t work. The reality won’t go away.

All this throwing the toys out of the pram and digging in one’s heels over a non-principle will reflect rather poorly on Imran Khan and some of his top aides; among them some who will have to face the voters over the course of this year and others who won’t.

Editorial: Back to the pavilion

As iftar came and went, it was becoming clear that calls for sanity were falling on deaf ears. Imran Khan, a politician who refers to Western democratic principles ad nauseam, wants to trigger a crisis where he is physically ejected from office as the constitutional means of doing that are being blunted on his orders.

It is incumbent on the opposition and other state institutions not to take the bait as it will fuel his narrative about a ‘forced regime change’ even when he has lost the confidence of parliament. It is easier said than done. Particularly, when critical decisions relating to the economic health of the country need to be taken urgently.

But if there is no resolution soon, the Supreme Court may wish to step in to restore sanity and if the speaker fails to perform his constitutional duty and is more loyal to his leader than the rule of law, then perhaps the parliamentary vote could be supervised by the chief election commissioner or another designated official.

The sooner the transition happens the better, as the new government needs to take on a raft of challenges, with economic stabilisation being the top priority. But this will be a tightrope act as tough steps such as the withdrawal of the fuel subsidy can trigger a popular backlash.

Faced with the prospect of a no-confidence move, the government announced the subsidy despite the regulator recommending a price hike to reflect rising global energy prices. Sanity was set aside in a desperate bid for political survival that experts likened to economic suicide.

The new government will have to undertake the task of taking away the subsidy and adding on an increase in recognition of what the country is paying for energy imports. Fuel prices can trigger more inflation.

A population groaning under inflationary pressures, will be asked to bear more. My sympathies are with Imran Khan’s successor.

The writer is a former editor of Dawn.
abbas.nasir@hotmail.com

Published in Dawn, April 10th, 2022