Emphasising democratic norms

Speaker National Assembly, Asad Qisar, while taking to reporters urged the leadership of opposition political parties to accept each other mandate to smoothly carry forward the journey of democracy. He deplored the hostile attitude of the opposition parties towards the PTI government and cautioned if the negative tendency of intolerance continues then every election in future will become controversial to the detriment of long cherished goal of establishing true functional democracy in the country.

The general elections of 2018 were transparent and the people gave mandate to PTI to break the statisque in national politics which was under the control of dynastic political parties, protecting the interests and privileges of oppressive feudal and mercantile classes. The election results reflected that people wanted to eliminate the culture of corruption, nepotism and violation of merit which disillusioned the educated youth.

In the past the attitude of intolerance had disrupted the journey of democracy which ultimately culminated in extra-constitutional events whether as a matter of necessity or otherwise. The deliberate use of the world selected Prime Minister and selected government not only creates bad taste on the domestic front but also expose the political immaturity of the leaders on foreign front. It was incumbent upon the leadership of opposition parties to have stopped the tirade against the popularly elected Prime Minister and have extended unflinching political and moral support on his crucial visit to the United States. After the opposition parties meeting on the proposal of changing the Senate Chairman, leader of the opposition in the National Assembly Shabaz Sharif disdainfully refused to comment on the Prime Minister’s visit to the US and his meetings with President Donald Trump, Senate Foreign Relations Committee and influential lawmakers of Congress. Is he not disrespecting the mandate that PML-N received from the people in last year polls? Is it not against the democratic traditions which are being observed not only in western democracies but neighbouring country India and few other South Asian developing countries?

Transparency, rule of law, and across-the board accountability are the basic fundamentals of democracy. Western democracies flourished and their economies reached to the zenith of prosperity by strictly adhering to these fundamentals. Till 1977 the fundamental of transparency existed in the governance up to some extent although there was a total disregard for the rule of law and accountability. It was the recalcitrant bent of mind of the political elite towards rule of law and accountability which proved a stumbling block in evolution and strengthening of democracy. Culture of financial corruption entered in the political landscape of the country in 1985 and became well entrenched over the past three decades. It compounded the miseries of common man with increasing level of poverty, unemployment, lack of health, education, malnutrition and clean drinking water facilities. The menace of corruption can be rooted out by implementing impartial and across-the board accountability and people expect positive response from the opposition leaders instead showing anger against the government on this issue.

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