Imran Khan' disgraceful exit

Former PM Imran Khan had the options of graceful exit from power but one after the other he lost the options 

Finally, National Assembly voted out the Imran Khan from the position of prime minister. He is no more the Prime Minister of Pakistan because he lost the majority in the National Assembly.  He tried to delay the voting on no-confidence motion in the National Assembly until Supreme Court decided to hear the contempt and implementation petitions filed in the court at midnight. The Supreme Court once again sends a clear message that it will not tolerate another blatant violation of constitution and its own order. The speaker then resigned and National Assembly finally was able to decide the no-confidence vote. The government was buying time to manage the situation which was not under its control.

Former Prime Minister Imran had exhausted all the options to exit from power gracefully. Instead of following the constitution and democratic norms, he opted for a path of disgraceful exit. He will be remembered as a leader who tried everything including the blatant violation of the constitution in attempts to cling on to the power for few more days. He took desperate measures and steps to avoid a vote of no-confidence in the National Assembly.

He will be remembered as a leader who disregarded the constitution, democratic process and parliamentary norms. He lost the opportunity to become the first PM of this country who preferred to follow the constitution and parliamentary traditions and decided to accept the reality with grace and dignity. But unfortunately, he chooses to undermine the constitution and democracy and preferred chaos, instability and crisis instead of smooth democratic transition in an orderly manner.

The former Prime Minister Imran khan had the options of graceful exit from power but he chooses the options that led him towards the disgraceful exit. He had the option to go down in the history as a leader who faced vote of no- confidence in the National Assembly with grace and upheld the constitution, parliamentary norms and democratic traditions.

He had the option to resign and call the fresh elections after realising that he has lost the majority in the National Assembly. He lost the opportunity to become the first Prime Minister in the history of Pakistan who resigned after losing the majority in National Assembly instead of becoming the first PM who voted out through vote of no-confidence.

One expects that a democratically elected civilian leader will protect the supremacy of constitution and parliament. But Imran Khan and his government used one lame excuse after the other to delay the voting on no-confidence motion.

He will also remembered as the Prime Minister who tried to control the media and introduced draconian laws to silent the critics and the media. It was one of the worst periods for the Pakistani media. Hundreds of journalists were made unemployed.

An artificial crisis was created for the media through its advertisement policy. Many prominent journalists were forced to go off air. The PECA ordinance 2022 was the clear example of this policy. The PM Imran Khan and some other prominent PTI leaders tried to defend the PECA ordinance which was declared draconian by its own Attorney General.

The PFUF and other media bodies rejected draconian PECA ordinance 2022 but government refused to take it back. The Islamabad High court has declared the PECA ordinance2022 and section 20 of the PECA act 2016 unconstitutional and null and voids in April 08 judgement.

He tried to establish the dangerous precedent through the ruling of the deputy speaker. The deputy speaker declared the opposition lawmakers as collaborators in an international conspiracy to overthrow an elected government. It was a clear plan to tag the opposition as traitors and then go for an election.

                                          

Thanks to the historic decision of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, we have returned back to the normalcy. The Supreme Court decision has brought us back on the path of constitutional parliamentary democracy. The Supreme Court decision on the ruling of the deputy speaker Qasim Soori given on April 03 is historic. This decision has upheld the constitution and foiled the attempt to blatantly violate the constitution by the PTI government.

April 07 will be remembered as day when honourable Supreme Court intervened to declare the blatant deviation from the constitution and democratic process unconstitutional and thus set aside. The Supreme Court not only upheld the constitution but also faced the country from further chaos, political instability and anarchy.

Supreme Court has provided the political leadership another chance to sit down and sort out the issues amicably, orderly manner and democratically. This SC decision is a big political setback for the PTI. The PTI leadership was hoping that it might get away with the serious violation of the constitution under the plan of fresh mandate. It was a conscious attempt on the part of the PTI leaders to create anarchy and constitutional crisis to push the country immediately towards the new elections.

Hardly anybody can disagree that Pakistan needs fresh general elections to overcome the current political chaos and uncertainty. But it is important to hold the elections under a stable situation rather than in chaotic circumstances. Pakistan cannot afford another controversial election. Instead of providing a stability and strong government, the controversial elections will bring more chaos and instability.

The Supreme Court has provided this opportunity to the political leadership to undertake all the necessary measures and steps to organise the transparent, free and fair elections in the country. Pakistan not just needs another election but an election free of all kind of controversies including rigging and intervention from powerful quarters. 

The PTI leaders are now arguing that Supreme Court intervened in the internal matters of the Parliament protected in the article 69 and it undermines the supremacy of the parliament. But a closer look at the record of PTI government in last 44 months will reveal that it never tried to establish the supremacy of the parliament but on the contrary used it as rubber stamp.

PTI preferred to form and deliberate the key policies and decisions without conducting a proper debate in the parliament. PTI adopted the strategy to undermine the authority of the parliament. The parliamentary committees were ignored in the policy making. Instead of building broader consensus in the parliament, it used majority to pass legislation.

Parliament was turned into a debating club to make fiery speeches with little content and point scoring against each other. Parliament will earn respect from the people and other institutions when it will focus on the real issues of the masses and try to come up with workable solutions. 

                                                                  Khalid Bhatti