Pakistan: Time for hard choices

Daily Times

Hardly a day in the office and Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf is faced with the spectre of the NRO case, impelling him to undo the stance taken by his predecessor and write that letter to the Swiss authorities. Two petitions, one in the Supreme Court Lahore’s registry and another in the Sindh High Court, have been filed to take up the issue against the new premier for opening graft cases against the president. The Prime Minister has so far not given any statement to this end; he too would obviously stand on the grounds taken by his former colleague, Yousuf Raza Gilani. On assuming office the PM immediately called an energy conference as a first step to find a solution to the issue of load shedding. On a short term basis the premier has asked the Petroleum Ministry to provide 28,000 tons of furnace oil to power generating units, to add 1,200 MW to the national grid. In a similar order 15 MMcfd of gas would be given to a generation plant in Faisalabad to generate another 65 MW of electricity. The meeting that went on for seven hours also decided to deprive the industrial and CNG sector of gas for one more day to reduce load shedding. Two committees have been constituted, one for Punjab and the other for Sindh, to hold talks with the stakeholders to implement the curtailment programme. No long term energy plan could be developed, that perhaps require more serious deliberations, provided the PM and his cabinet is given the space and time to do so. With the applications against the premier already filed and the Supreme Court set to hear the NRO case on June 27, the chances are that the judicial conundrum would consume the energy needed to settle other pertinent issues that have taken the country by storm. Besides holding a conference on the energy crisis on his first day in office, the PM, in his penchant to reconnect to the people of his rank, the middle class, threw open the doors of the Prime Minister’s House for ordinary people to meet him. Overwhelmed by gratitude over the support of his allies who voted him into office; Raja Ashraf went to meet Chaudhry Shujaat, the President of PML-Q at his residence and thanked him for his party’s support. The pleasantries were punctuated with assurances by the PM of fulfilling the promises that the PPP had made to the PML-Q to reciprocate its support. Another important directive issued by the PM on his first day in office was about enhancing the security of the Supreme Court that has been demanded by the latter recently. There are many issues that would be taken up by the PM in the days to come but in the cacophony of the NRO case there seems little hope for smooth sailing. This brings the country to a new fix where neither democracy nor the stature of the judiciary could be maintained and upheld. In their effort of cutting each other to size, the country would be robbed of important decisions to resolve multiple crises facing it, the paramount being the energy crisis. One had hoped that the dust of the crisis would settle with the ouster of Prime Minister Gilani. Though the calling of new elections seems a viable option, now that the government is not interested to call it a day before completing its full tenure, it is time for sagacity to return at least to the sane minds to let democracy move on. Unless a chance is given, how would the government perform? Being embroiled in cases would further undermine the capacity of the government to make things work for the people. Let the government pass through the acid test to see if in these few months it could live up to the expectations of the people. Otherwise the ballot would decide their fate. For the sake of democracy that has only tentatively set foot on Pakistani soil, let there be a reason to celebrate it by not letting history repeat itself.