Assault on democracy

The PTI jalsa exposed the inner entrails of the government and the party. The government reluctantly allowed the meeting to take place and then, almost childishly, used every trick in the book to stop people from coming.

The party’s internal problems were exposed as many of its leaders were, as they say, conspicuous by their absence. They may have been present but nobody saw them. Also, some of the speeches were over the top and whatever the motive, did not go down well.

The credit to the PTI is that despite serious hurdles and difficulties it was able to gather a huge crowd and that too without the presence of Imran Khan. The discredit to the PTI is to allow its opponents to further a stereotype – that the party is basically a collection of foulmouthed people.

The credit to the government is …. actually there is very little credit to the government throughout this jalsa cycle – but there is much discredit. The government gave the permission obviously as a quid pro quo for the PTI postponing its August 22 public meeting but then completely lost it.

Islamabad was barricaded as if Huns were hurtling down the motorway, causing much discomfort to this city of dreams. Eateries around the meeting site were stopped from giving food to the hungry and hotels threatened to deny succour to the weary. Gas stations emptied of gas absurdly stranding people who wanted to go back, something the administration wanted them to do in the first place.

But what happened the next day is tragic, to say the least. Parliament House was besieged by an invading force of hundreds of law enforcement. Members of the august houses emerging from within were then herded into police vans like lost sheep. Others in panic were marooned inside.

But this did not stop the police. Past midnight the sanctity of the Parliament House was breached and members forcibly picked up. This is something that had never happened before. Their crime? Not a conspiracy against the state but something much more serious: running a public meeting later than the designated time. What a spectacle we are making of ourselves for the world to see.

It was belatedly realized by members of the ruling party that this incursion by the police does not only affect PTI members. It reduces everyone’s stature collectively and also could happen to them in the future. This made them gather before the speaker and demand action. Ayaz Sadiq, the National Assembly speaker, would like to do the right thing and has made the right statements threatening to hold the police to account. But, will he be able to it?

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister also did a disappearing act soon after the public meeting. Till the time of writing this, it is not clear where he was or what he was up to. Speculation is that he was put on the mat figuratively, hope not literally. He has not spoken since his arrival back so one can only surmise that he absorbed the lesson force-fed to him.

The action in the Parliament House and whatever transpired with the KP CM is unprecedented. We are not crossing red lines of individuals or parties but of democratic traditions. If parliamentarians sitting in the House can be arrested, then nobody is safe. We may see more of this happening in the future and each wound inflicted on the democratic polity takes us closer to complete dictatorship.

This government is setting precedents that will haunt this blessed land for a long, long time. Under its umbrella there is no sanctity to parliament, no special place of honour for representatives of the people, no indemnity to a holder of a high public office. Everyone is fair game. A tradition is being set for the future and whataboutery would be the excuse for transgressions to come; meaning every bad deed would be explained away by comparing it to the past.

The damage being done is much more profound than the stupid antics of this government. What we are seeing, slowly but inexorably, is an erosion of hard-won democratic freedoms. The immediate assault has been on the media. From all reports, its electronic version is in a vice-like grip and not much against the government or the institutions is tolerated. Social media is visibly being throttled with firewalls and God knows what else. Print media, especially its English variety, is tolerated on the correct assumption that nobody reads it anyway.

In the political sphere too, the nation had gotten used to its rough-and-tumble style. While in the past the hostility between whoever the government or the opposition was did not look pretty, its tolerance indicated furtherance of democratic values. Now something as common as a public meeting has become a big deal and political workers – albeit from only one party – are being hauled up for trivialities.

The strong-arm tactics are not stopping here. A virtual assault on the constitution is being planned and this time the target is the judiciary. The number of judges in the Peshawar High Court has already been increased through a presidential order. One did not know this could be done without a constitutional amendment but even such an amendment is not an impossibility. Rumours have it that the numbers have already been collected and this week or the next the voting will happen.

While the excuse for tampering with the judiciary is that, the caseload being high, more judges are needed, the real reason is different. It is a naked attempt at packing the courts with judges who would be more amenable in every possible way. The SC decision on the reserved seats – which has not been implemented so far – was a catalyst for all this although the project to have a favourable judiciary was already on the table. The other part of this tame-the-judiciary exercise was targeting the judges.

One aspect widely speculated was whether an extension to the chief justice of Pakistan would be a part of this constitutional package. For months now, statements kept coming out that CJ Faez Isa would not accept an extension under any circumstance. Now a clarification has come. The CJ will not accept a person-specific extension. What this implies is that if there is an amendment giving everyone an extension, he would accept it too. This is where it stands now. Don’t know how this will play out.

The predominant feeling seeing all that is going on in Islamabad is one of sadness. We are already near rock bottom on most matrices. The shenanigans afoot will take us down further.

The writer served as the federal minister of education in the PTI’s federal government. He can be reached at: shafqatmd@gmail.com