Imran Khan’s powerless opposition to 20th Amendment

DAILY TIMES
By Muhammad Akram

LAHORE: The gargantuan task ahead of holding general elections in a free, fair and impartial manner gets a major boost with the passage of 20th Amendment by all political forces having representation in the National Assembly, leaving aside only the likes of PTI which boycotted the 2008 elections and achieved no success in the by-elections.

The PTI, without offering any convincing arguments, has rejected this widely acclaimed amendment to the constitution merely because its self-assumed political opponents – the ruling PPP-led coalition and the main opposition party PML-N – had the final say on the issue.

PTI chief Imran Khan has demanded an all-parties conference (APC) on the matter with a hilarious threat of launching a civil disobedience movement if his demand is not met. The demand for an APC is highly unlikely given the support the amendment had received from political forces of all shades and colours and cross-section of the civil society, including the independent media.

The PTI is apparently left with no choice but to accept the amendment or to host an APC on its own and face political humiliation as no political party would be ready to attend the moot. However, a conglomerate of jihadi and defunct organisations trying to stir the polity in the name of defeatist ideology of defence of Pakistan may accept any such invitation after seeing no prospects for them in the politics of constitutionalism.

In fact, PTI insiders said, the party’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) had failed to comprehend the political development beforehand as a majority of its policymakers eyed an entanglement over the amendment between the PPP and PML-N and the PPP and its allies in the backdrop of Prime Minister Gilani drifting close to an early conviction in the contempt of court case and a showdown between the judiciary and the executive on NRO case.

The insiders said the party had of late been quite watchful of the political moves of JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman whom they considered acting as a troubleshooter for the incumbent dispensation and hammering out political deals for democratic transition as a result of general elections in October between the incumbent government and the mainstream opposition forces.

The sources said Fazlur Rehman would be the prime target of the party leadership in days to come as pre-emptive measures to keep him from tarnishing the image of Imran Khan, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The PTI chief has gained considerable support in the province at the cost of erosion of support base of the PML-N, ANP and JUI-F.

At the moment, the JUI-F is the only significant religio-political party in the country which is proving its allegiance to the constitutionalism. The remaining such parties, including the Jamaat-e-Islami, has joined what has largely been the suspected security establishment-driven Defence of Pakistan Council (DPC). The DPC has been seen holding public meetings in Lahore, Rawalpindi and Karachi at a cost of millions of rupees to spread its agenda of hatred for democracy and constitutionalism and a foreign policy of regional and international isolation to the country.

The PTI has been sharing DPC platforms that are being used to spread agenda of hatred against democracy, parliamentary system and the love for jihad and allegiance with defunct organisations. The party took an active part in DPC’s public meetings in at Lahore and Karachi and showed its eagerness to have an electoral alliance with the Jamaat-e-Islami, the most vocal component of DPC.

Largely dubbed “political orphans” such as Sheikh Rashid Ahmed and Ijazul Haq have been attending DPC gatherings. They are stated to be taking a refuge of the platform of jihadis since nothing much is left for them in electoral politics and a polity vying to stage a rare democratic transition in months to come.

The PTI insiders said the party has been categorical in not welcoming in its fold the likes of Sheikh Rashid and also finger crossed in striking an electoral alliance with the JI. The sources said the PTI has slowed down its process of accepting PML-Q turncoats in its fold following criticism from the media as well as political opponents. Yet it has failed to quell the temptation of gulping all those who could ensure a win for the party in Punjab in the forthcoming elections in a triangular contest with the PPP and PML-N as the other contenders. The sources termed Imran Khan’s rejection of the 20th Amendment his “naivety” about the country’s politics where the proposed legislation was nothing short of a dream coming true for all those struggling to get closer to the holding of elections sans all impurities.

The sources added the amendment would help democratic forces and civil institutions keep this very important tool of democracy in their control with a “powerful establishment only watching from a distance the healthy democratic occurrences on the national political scene”.

Imran Khan’s calling a foul to something – an independent elections commission, non-partisan caretaker set-up and almost flawless electoral rolls – which is a rare practice even in the developed democracies is nothing but a hangover of crowd he manages to pull in public meetings. But he is yet to experience the conversion of the same into support in elections, the sources said.