Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan has been a famous cricketer. But in the language of cricket, his behavior seems like that of a child who has a bat and announces the end of the game. Politics is not done this way. Everyone’s consent is necessary to run the country. If any law or constitution has been made for this, then it must be followed. If the politicians will not implement it, then there will be no stability in the political system and then it can complicate many such government things, which can be difficult to solve.
Pakistan’s position is that when Information and Broadcasting Minister Fawad Chaudhry was asked that according to the country’s mirror, when a no-confidence motion against the government, i.e. ‘Adam-e-Etimad’ is moved in the National Assembly, then it cannot be dissolved. . So, in response to this, Fawad Chaudhry said, the no-confidence motion was not moved, it was rejected by the speaker. However, he linked the whole issue to Article V, which promises allegiance to the country from Pakistani citizens. Obviously, when the government itself starts distributing certificates of its own right and the wrongness of the opposition, then the political system cannot run properly. If Imran Khan really had a majority, he would have probed the so-called foreign conspiracy and kept the truth in front of the people.
Now the matter is in the High Court of Pakistan. However, in the kind of development that is happening, Imran Khan will hardly be able to get any relief from the court. There is much speculation that there will be general elections in Pakistan. Anyway, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has been ruling for almost three and a half years and only one and a half year is left for the next elections. That is why the general election will decide who will become the Wazir-e-Azam there? With this, it will also be possible to know with whom the public is with?
Talking about the electoral equation, it does not seem that this time PTI will be able to get an absolute majority. It won 149 seats in the 2018 elections, and formed the government with nine independent MPs. This time, not only are the voices of parties like MQM-P, an ally of the government, revolting, but 20-25 MPs of PTI have also expressed distrust in their government. Clearly, the road ahead for Imran Khan is not an easy one. Then, looking at the region-wise situation, the Punjab suba has been favoring the PML (Nawaz), while the Sindh province appears to be divided between the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the MQM. Frontier areas have been influenced by Islamist parties, PTI, Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam etc., but here PTI is not so intrusive that it can touch the magic figure of 172 seats again.
This is not a new situation for Pakistan. This has happened before. Nawaz Sharif has become Prime Minister thrice, but could not complete his term even once. In the 80-90s of the last century, when I was in Islamabad, during five and a half years I saw five prime ministers there. Looks like this has started again. However, this time the tenure of the government has lasted a little longer. Still, this does not bode well for democracy.
It is being said that the army is also the pivot of the current developments. It is true that the army is its master and nothing can happen without its consent. But this time she seems neutral. Perhaps that is why the no-confidence motion against the Imran Khan government could go so far that it was introduced in Parliament. The military officers are saying time and again that they have no hand in all this. However, even if there was involvement, he would still sing the same melody.
Yet, this time no one is pointing a finger at the army. It remains to be seen how neutral she can remain in the elections. By the way, this time neither Nawaz Sharif’s party is showing strength nor in Benazir Bhutto’s party. Imran is accused of speaking the words of the army only. That is, today there is no Pervez Musharraf era. At that time, leaders like Nawaz Sharif, Benazir Bhutto, Asif Zardari had a commitment that they would keep the army separate from the Jamhoori government. When the PPP government was here, Nawaz Sharif did not attempt a coup with the army even though he was in the opposition, although he continued to cooperate fully with the PPP. Of course, Nawaz Sharif was angry with the government, but then the political parties understood that by fighting among themselves, the army would easily control them.
As for India, being a large country in the sub-continent, it is our duty to maintain regional stability. Right now there is an atmosphere of instability not only in Pakistan, but also in Sri Lanka, Maldives and Nepal. If such conditions prevail in neighboring countries, regional stability will never be maintained. Therefore, our mutual relations with Pakistan may be bad, but we should keep an eye on its situation much more. We have to think whether the ongoing turmoil in the neighborhood is in our interest? Obviously, we have to introduce foresight. It is possible that our hands extended to help Pakistan may remain empty, but we should take the initiative. If the neighborhood is burning, its flames will affect us too. We have to make such policies, which benefit the neighboring countries. Yes, it is up to them to what extent they accept our cooperation. If seen, our government has been working in the same way.
(These are the author’s own views)