The intensity of legal battles fought by political parties in top courts is quite astonishing. One feels compelled to assess the unexplored benefits of these hard-fought wars for the common masses. Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto has rightly pointed out that either someone is striving to come out of prison or someone is exerting effort to dodge imprisonment. This satire is precisely articulated to ditch the narratives of PPP’s political rivals but cannot be considered absolutely inaccurate. Despite being relevant to the prevailing political culture, this pointy comment missed the darker sides of none other than the PPP itself.
Certainly, as a matter of fact, our immature political culture still lacks the tradition of self-accountability or self-introspection. Therefore, the leadership of the PPP is no different from the political ilk of it. Three major political parties, namely PPP, PTI, and PML-N, have locked horns for upcoming elections scheduled in less than a month now. The disappointing performance of ruling parties from 2018 to 2023 tells us multiple eye-opening factual stories of bad governance. Voters should be more concerned about understanding these failure stories prior to electoral exercise because laxity on this aspect might lead to further failures in the future as well. Real stakeholders of the elections are common masses who have to elect representatives for the subsequent formulation of the government.
Obviously, the elected government is constitutionally authorized to deal with economic policies, foreign affairs, internal security, and all matters related to governance. In other words, the fate of the nation rests upon the shoulders of the elected government. How such an important decision of electing the rulers can be dealt with casually without weighing the future plans of the candidates?
A voter should thoroughly scrutinize the candidate and his party on account of displayed performance, future manifesto, and capacity to fulfill the promise made during the fascinating electioneering speeches. Mere slogans and baseless blame games in election campaign speeches can never benefit the voters in any way. Unfortunately, the imprecision of political discourse is growing more with every passing day. The serious disconnect of political debates from the issues directly affecting the public is stark proof of a fragmented system. This well-entrenched, flawed system is highly exploitative and fraudulent in nature. Failures of the rulers fall heavily on the public who ultimately pay the heavy price for the mistake casually committed on polling day once in a five years.
A critical and impartial glance at treacherous politics played in power corridors after the 2018 elections will be enough to fairly assess the gravity of damages done to the country. From the outset, major political parties started 2018 election campaign with rhetorical narratives. PML-N’s criticism on ouster of Nawaz Sharif was all about depicting the self-assumed victimhood and got traction on social media platform with the phrase “Mujhay kiyon Nikala” (why I was outed?). This victimhood narrative took a new shape once PML-N rejected the election results with the allegations of rigging. Opposition had no other option except joining the chorus of election rigging.
Strangely PPP, the beneficiary of election victory in Sindh, kept questioning the non-transparency of same elections in the center from which enabled it to rule the province for third consecutive term. While using the title of ‘Selected’ for the PM, PPP and rest of the opposition always treated CM Sindh as an elected ruler. On the other side, PTI paid least attention on fulfilling the lofty promises and wasted most of the efforts on character assassination of opponents with unproven allegations, derogatory titles, demagoguery and fabricated social media campaigns.
Consistent down slide of Pakistan in economic, diplomatic, internal security and governance domains stamped the inefficiency of unprepared PTI stalwarts. Formulation of PDM alliance with secretive machination was all about toppling down the PTI government. Exchange of allegations between the opposition and government kept revolving around corruption, traitor ship, bad governance and rigging with support of non-elected powers. PTI’s coalition government could not sustain the VONC due to obvious incompetence and lack of political acumen. Consequent formulation of PDM government just led to change of guards in power corridors but could not deliver any good to the public as evident from unprecedented instability.
Confrontational stance of PTI, ill-preparedness of PDM government and addiction of political top tiers with sensational rhetorical narratives are the key reasons behind the perpetuating instability. Irony is that unsettled political tug of war never contributes positively in resolving the issues being confronted by the masses. What public has got to do with it, if Mr X or Y leading a party for decades, is proved innocent or guilty ? This vicious design of political game revolving around innocence and culpability of particular leaders has pushed Pakistan in the dark pits of backwardness.
Fact of the matter is that political parties have started hiding their performance failures with the victimhood rhetoric. Blind followers within the parties and unaware voters should start questioning the vote seekers about their past performance, future governance plans, personal repute and capacity to deliver the promised objectives. Time is not good to blindly follow the narratives fabricated for a particular leader. Why not to focus on the collective interests of the masses who are the real stakeholders and the victims of deceitful politics.
(The writer is a freelance journalist and can be reached at [email protected])
