Though the Sindh Assembly overrode the Governor’s veto of the Local Government Amendment Bill on Saturday, it only did so amid a House having dissolved in chaos. The opposition wanted to discuss the bill, which the Treasury did not countenance. Thus did the Sindh PTI, which forms the leading part of the opposition, find itself paying for the sins of the central PTI, which is the ruling party in Islamabad, There, the PTI rammed through the Bill mandating Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) without debate, first through the National Assembly and then the joint session of Parliament, without debate. Ironically, the Sindh Governor, a PTI appointee, had vetoed a bill amending the local government election law on the ground that it was ‘undemocratic’.
It is no consolation that the Sindh Assembly rumpus broke no records, set no precedents, but it does show that there is a need for leaders to calm things down. However, Imran Khan saying the same day, while addressing a gathering in Mianwali, that he was willing to talk with anyone ‘except looters’, did not help matters, especially in view of his track record, where he has refused to speak to PML(N) leaders even though there has been no finding of corruption by any court. That ‘conviction through accusation’ has survived the experience of government, and Mr Khan has shown that he has no intention of abandoning a theme which got him elected in 2018. This is a risky strategy, for there has been nothing to justify his campaign narrative that corruption at the top was preventing prosperity. With precious little to show so far in his tenure, he is reverting to old tropes which lock parliamentarians on both sides in the sort of unrelenting enmity and violence that prevents them from cooperating.
The government and opposition have to learn to agree to disagree. Pakistan is a parliamentary democracy, which means that all have a right to speak. The PTI has that right in the Sindh Assembly, the PPP in the National Assembly. It is up to the PTI to ensure that there is a modicum of good behaviour, so that the opposition, no matter its party, can speak its mind freely. Parliamentary democracy means getting along with everyone, irrespective of one’s private opinion, so as to conduct the public’s business expeditiously.
