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.
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.
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 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
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