Protests, power, parliament

The establishment’s hand-picked political leader in the form of Imran Khan and his political party, the PTI, have come full circle. From the 2018 elections – the time of the ‘one page’ – to now not even being on the same chapter, we see that the PTI has fallen out of favour.

It is important we remember what we were promised - that Khan was going to save Pakistan from tried, tested and ‘corrupt’ politicians of the past, and be the new face and saviour that would change Pakistan’s fate.

Fast forward some years, and events later, particularly recent events, it is safe to say that for now the hybrid experiment of governance is well and truly over. Falling out of favour with the powers that be seems to be news for the PTI, seeing from their angry, reactionary and accusatory street protests. However, one doesn’t need to have in-depth knowledge (or grey hair) of our political history to know it’s not personal. Even some remote historical perspective tells us that we have seen it before – other political parties in the past have been groomed to take power, and when eventually in power, being removed from it under the whim of corruption.

After the 2018 elections, when the PTI formed government there was a sense, even among some naysayers, of potential change. Everyone wants change from the status quo, to see what someone new can deliver where others may have failed. Unfortunately, the PTI struggled to grapple with governance for the first 18 months. Severe criticism led to some attempts at change, including change in cabinet posts for non-performance, but the overall consensus, even among PTI supporters, was one of disappointment. A revolution that promised complete change failed to deliver even on the basics.

Since losing the vote of no confidence in April of this year, the PTI has resorted to protests as its modus operandi. Khan led countrywide protests that allowed for a raucous show of the PTI’s discontent and attempting, through pressure, an early general election. So far it hasn’t worked, and it can even be argued that this call has lost momentum. The latest attempt at pressure is in the announcement of resignations from the assemblies in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the two provinces which are governed by the PTI.

What it has confirmed is that the PTI does not consider sitting in parliament important enough. For the party, being in parliament translates as business as usual, taking away from Khan’s limelight. Khan considers being in opposition personal defeat for him. For someone who preaches his extensive knowledge of Western societies, he fails to comprehend that successful parliaments in the West are a combination of both a functioning government and an effective opposition to hold the sitting government to account. He would gain more political clout if he accepted his role in opposition. Instead, Khan refuses to accept legitimate defeat, joining other populist deniers around the world, such as Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil and Donald Trump in America.

With a powerful social media team (something starkly lacking among the PPP and PML-N), sprinkled with simplistic and catchy sloganeering, Khan has successfully created several parallel ‘truths’. It does not matter that he retracts from the conspiracy claims he makes. Once he has said them, they remain part of the news cycle and help build a narrative PTI supporters hold on to, confused between real truth and Khan’s truth.

These protests, and the refusal to sit in opposition in parliament, confirms the PTI’s sole goal is to be in power – regardless of how it is achieved and what it may destroy in the process. Obviously, one of the main aims of all political parties is exercising power. In the PTI’s case, however, it is the acquiring of power at any cost. This includes its 2018 single and simplistic election slogan of corruption being the fundamental problem of the country. The solution is even more simplistic – our problems will automatically be solved once ‘corrupt’ politicians are behind bars and ill-gotten gains returned.

The PTI’s 2022 narrative was of a foreign conspiracy to rid us of Khan and to bring in a puppet government America can control. Now Khan claims the conspiracy is past him – in his interview with the Financial Times – something seen by political experts as a retraction. In peddling this narrative for as long as Khan did, the PTI has been able to do two things: first, undermine and disregard a sitting parliament to exercise its right to bring a motion of no confidence against a sitting PM. Second, undermine the constitution which allows for this legitimate move to exercise a vote of no-confidence (VONC) by parliament. In fact, it was the first time we witnessed a legitimate removal of a serving PM – coups and abrogating the constitution being the usual practice of the past. Of course, there was political hobnobbing, the usual vote breaking/taking, and switching sides and crossing the floor to join other political parties. But isn’t this a possibility in a parliamentary democracy? It would be naïve to think that the VONC was as straightforward as the PDM wish us to believe, yet it wasn’t illegal, unconstitutional, or crossing any other obvious rule or procedure of parliament.

The PTI’s overall leadership style is that of populist authoritarianism that disregards democratic institutions and traditions. While in power, and now in opposition, the party is unable to look back at our troubled political history and learn lessons from it. It did not read (or did not care for) the 2007 Charter of Democracy between the PML-N and PPP, political parties which eventually recognized that only together could they shield against undemocratic forces too powerful to confront on their own.

The most tangible of this political consensus can be seen in the all-important 18th Amendment – devolving power to the provinces and hence making it more difficult for all out military takeovers. The PTI during its nearly four-year reign, and during recent protests and rallies has divided us, created alternative facts and, it is safe to say, plunged us back politically to pre-2007 politics. With a social media presence that has captured so many young people in their favour, the PTI’s powerful narrative is undoing the little efforts attempted by progressive citizenry, including progressive women’s rights groups, that democracy is important, if not essential, for Pakistan’s progress.

The PTI is attempting to recreate the culture of no red lines among politicians, in turn to only safeguard ones’ own party and political interests. Most unfortunate and dangerous, however, is the party’s outright insistence that non-democratic interference is welcomed (as long as it favours them) to keep a rival out of power. Even if the long-term result is stalling democracy and weakening civilian rule.

The writer is a lawyer and consultant.

She tweets @BenazirJatoi