According to the good old parliamentary practices and traditions , which surely and certainly need to be upheld and strengthened, the government of the day and the opposition, are like two wheels of a vehicle. Both these wheels have to move together in a smooth manner otherwise the speed of the vehicle will be adversely effected and it may not be able to keep moving straight on the road .If one wheels gets or becomes defective, in any manner, then the people at large suffer more than the government as the ongoing development works speedy and timely implementation is hampered directly and indirectly and fruits of developmental activities do not reach the people as intended and desired by the government.
Furthermore, in a parliamentary system the opposition leader in the National Assembly is regarded as the prime minister -in- waiting. In number of other countries like Britain opposition even has shadow cabinet though the shadow cabinet tradition somehow do not exist in Pakistan.
In a democratic system, which is quite fortunately prevailing in Pakistan for some years , opposition also has the right to criticize the government policies, programmes and developmental activities. Such criticism is good and even welcomed by the government if it is healthy criticism aiming at improving things, here and there with good intentions and objectives. Merely criticism for sake of criticism or for political point scoring is neither liked and welcomed by the government nor it is productive in any manner. Needless to mention here that negative criticism by the opposition hampers progress and development of the country both directly and indirectly and in all fairness is not appreciated by the people at large besides the government against whom such negative and hostile criticism is done. Democratic right so given to the opposition in a democratic system is for effecting improvement , pointing out shortcomings and faults in the implementation of development works and procedure adopted for execution of development projects for setting things right timely and in the overall larger interest of the country and the nation. Such criticism should obviously be done for improving things and supporting the government if it is doing something good and not for trying to pull down the government, hampering its developmental activities or obstructing its pro-people welfare measures.
Following the last general election, held on July 25, 2018 in a free, fair and transparent manner, Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf (PTI), headed by Imran Khan, came into power at the national level for the first time. Former ruling parties and other minor parties were the losers. They did not accept the election results saying these were rigged and a selected prime minister was imposed on the country and its people.
The opposition parties and their leaders continued their hostile outbursts against PM Imran Khan and his government for sometime individually calling it inefficient, incompetent ,selected and what not calling his stepping down. Then out of nowhere the Maulana emerged on the national scene, contacted the opposition parties leadership and as a result of his efforts 11 major and minor opposition parties formed an alliance some months back to exert pressure on the democratically elected peoples government and the prime minister to resign and go home packing . The newly -formed opposition alliance apparently had only one tem agenda of pulling down the PTI government.
The people by and large including this scribe, irrespective of their locations, were and continue to view, per force, the protest activities of the opposition parties alliance as the host of tv channels gave their protest activities by way of public meetings and rallies excessive coverage firstly as live coverage and then prominent coverage in their news headlines bulletins subsequently. What follows here as such is based on distance viewing of the opposition alliance protest activities against the government.
The alliance has so far held almost a dozen protest public meetings and rallies in different parts of the country and addressed by 11 major and minor parties thriving on only one item agenda of ouster of the present regime calling the democratically elected Prime Minister by all foul, filthy and non-sense names o say the least.
All the political parties firming the opposition alliance are based in Pakistan. But quite surprisingly, shockingly and regretfully at none of their protest meetings and rallies, national flag was seen at the stage although the people from distance had viewed not only all parties flags fluttering around but also of the flag of Afghan Talebans. Utterances by some of the alliance leaders were pretty hostile, against the national interests, national security and defence institutions and what not. These anti-Pakistan utterances were not condemned by other alliance leaders sitting on the stage here, there and everywhere.
Throughout the opposition leaders have so far failed to tell the people including the participating workers and madaris students and the people at large viewing and hearing them through tv channels as what they planned to do for the well-being and welfare of the people at large and what policies they would be following once they are “able” to throw out the democratically elected government and the prime minister by persisting and exerting pressure consistently day in and day out. Will the country thus be left in the lurch and vacuum so to say ?
While the opposition alliance is clamouring for the early hearing by the Election Commission foreign funding case against the ruling party PTI ,they also held a protest demonstration in this regard outside the Election Commission , they do not asked for also probing foreign funding of the former ruling parties. The Election Commission of Pakistan, according to the reports, since required all major and minor parties represented in the parliament to submit accounts and details of their foreign funding.
Furthermore and more importantly, number of ormer ruling parties and other opposition parties are facing corruption, money laundering and other cases in the Superior Courts, Ehtesab Courts and inquiries and investigations before the national watch dog, NAB . It would have been better and advisable if they had utilized their time and energies to get themselves cleared of these cases and inquiries and getting clean slate. Then their criticism of the incumbent government would have carried some weight which is missing and lacking presently.
One may ask the opposition parties leadership as to who is funding their protest meetings and rallies, lavish lunches and dinners as such huge arrangements of stages and chairs, and gathering and ravelling of workers and madaris cannot be made for free. Everything comes by spending little or more money.
One can go on discussing undemocratic activities of the opposition alliance parties and leaders but for want of space this is avoided. More about the opposition alliance leaders and their hostile anti-government activities and utterance and their prevailing indecisiveness in their ranks as how to go about further to exert more pressure and force the prime minister to resign and go home packing at some other time in some details as distance viewing of their protest activities continues per force courtesy tv channels, , please.
The writer is Lahore-based Freelance Journalist, Columnist and retired Deputy Controller (News), Radio Pakistan, Islamabad and can be reached at zahidriffat@gmail.com
