Salam This is my two cents on last two weeks. Please do share your comments and feedback. What did we learn from Azadi this year by Abdul Quayyum Khan Kundi All of us experienced a roller coaster emotional ride in last two weeks. For me it was a new experience as I took a decision to publicly oppose my party PTI’s policy when they announced that the objective of the long march will be toppling of the government. It was not an easy decision as I knew it would result in a fire storm as well as questions being raised about my loyalty to the party. Information sometimes becomes a burden because the person, who knows, has to act to satisfy his conscience. It is for this reason I usually avoid seeking information that I can’t handle. I carefully weighted all the options based on the information I had from inside and outside the party to make this decision to oppose publicly. In Pakistan traditionally political parties are loyalist clubs where party members and office bearers have to tow the party line whether they agree with it or not or whether party ideology, principles and constitution is upheld or not. My decision to publicly oppose the party policy was primarily driven by the fact that the decision for the long march was made in the violation of party constitution which meant it was not binding on me to accept it. Secondly I am not an office bearer just a member of the party which means that my views are just an individual expression rather than an official view that is integral to assuming an office. As a member I was not sitting in the decision making meetings or privy to all the information that was available to the office bearers. So it was not a breach of ethics. Lastly I have always held the view that first loyalty is to the nation and second to the party. When party announced they want to topple a sitting government as a common member of PTI I decided to offer a counter view to party members. I promoted the position that party should focus on electoral reforms; investigation of election irregularities through a judicial commission; hold local government elections through the reformed process and provide good governance in KP. I am mentioning my personal example so that to appeal to political activists in other political parties that they have to ensure their parties becomes institutions rather than remain herds of sheep with no voice of their won. My loyalty is and will remain with PTI until I have faith that it can become a political institution with popular support. The real winner of the long marches was the nation of Pakistan which showed that it can survive the stress test of democracy and come out of it stronger than before. The events of last two weeks will help us achieve greater balance between pillars of the state i.e. parliament, executive and judiciary. The role of the military establishment is highly commendable which did not directly intervened in the political process and allowed the politicians to sort out their issues themselves. This is a historic moment for the armed forces to send a message that they are a professional institution which is fully aware of its constitutional responsibilities and its boundaries. Participants of the protests should also be appreciated who remained peaceful and did not provoke any kind of violence. The political winner in this match was Siraj ul Haq of Jamat-e-Islami who emerged as a pragmatic and prudent politician with the potential to become a statesman. Pakistan has need of such statesman who can play the role of bridge to break deadlocks and guide politicians in making right kind of decisions. The person who gained maximum political mileage from this crisis is former President Asif Ali Zardari. He entered the political scene to negotiate a new charter of democracy with Nawaz Sharif. The outline of this new charter will emerge in next few weeks. But most probably it will contain sharing the pie in Punjab about which his party members were complaining to their central leadership. His statement that NS should not behave like a king was meant to tell him that he can’t have the biggest piece of the country Punjab all to himself. The other advice he probably gave to NS is to retain CM of Punjab position as it is their stronghold but give up PM office by elevating himself to the office of President. PTI established that it has the stamina to stay the course for a longer period against all odds. It showed that its members are dedicated to come out in large enough numbers to force the hand of the government to accept their position. Imran Khan himself lost some goodwill because of his reliance on extempore speeches rather than prepared text. Organizational, leadership and policy weaknesses of the party were also exposed which is an opportunity for them to fix it going forward. Inshallah we all in PTI will be working on it as failure of PTI will provide an opportunity for the emergence of status quo parties with much more force than before. The roles of print and electronic media also showed marked difference in their approach. Print media was more responsible and focused on promoting principles on which a stable democracy is built. They did not took sides by favoring one stakeholder over the other. Their approach was more balanced and their editorial control more professional. Electronic media on the other hand was quite irresponsible in editing the content. In a charged environment it is important to have a slightly delayed transmission to have an opportunity to review the feed that is being sent out. A wrong word, gesture or act can turn the crowd into a frenzy and promote panic across the country. Another disturbing fact that came out is that some media outlets had an agenda that was driving the content rather than facts on the ground. It is not possible for commercial media to remain completely neutral but it is important that barriers need to be erected between owners and news desk. At the same time some media outlets emerged as more responsible and professional to discharge their duty as fourth pillar of the state. Social media continued to remain a propaganda platform with active participants from all stakeholders. The crisis is still not over yet but eye of the storm has passed. I am confident in next few days the situation will normalize and deals signed. If not, I will be sending you an apology for being wrong.
Posted on: Tue, 26 Aug 2014 17:01:57 +0000
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015