Pakistan: ‘Outsourcing’ CM-ship diametrically opposed to democracy

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Criticising the ruling style of the Sharif brothers, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Punjab Secretary General Tanvir Ashraf Kaira has said that “outsourcing” the chief ministership by Shahbaz Sharif is an hierarchical inclination that diametrically runs against the democratic culture.

Clarifying in a statement on Thursday that PPP’s support to the PML-N government should not be taken for granted, Kaira added that the rulers should focus on providing relief to the people instead of compounding their miseries through neglect and inaptness.

Kaira said that PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari accepted the results of May 2013 elections for the sake of continuity of political system despite his serious reservations on the fairness and impartiality of the electoral process but that did not give carte blanche to the ruling party to trample on the aspirations of the people with total impunity.

He said that the hours-long electricity outages, skyrocketing food inflation, worsening law and order and abject neglect of the health and education sectors have made the lives of the people miserable and the apathy of the government was appalling that could not be condoned by the PPP, which strictly believed in the people’s politics.

The PPP leader said that the PML-N government should jettison the family style of governance, adding their intimidation of elected representatives and ministers alike would not bear fruit.

He said that the prime minister and the chief minister should conduct their government affairs in harmony with the elected representatives of the people in real sense of the word. The highest public offices should not be treated as family fiefdom, he observed.

Kaira called upon the government to accept the demands of the PTI and immediately initiate the process of thumbprints verification in four constituencies of Lahore to avoid the clash in August. He expressed the hope that good thinking would prevail at the end of the day. He pointed out that the manoeuvring/delaying thumbprints verification through procedural lacunas by the PML-N leaders would not help to shy away the possibility of gathering a political storm with terrible consequences for the system and the country.

He maintained that consistent engagement with the opposition was the best policy in any functioning democracy because opposition was the integral part of any democratic set-up. “The opposition is treated as a government-in-waiting and accepted as such,” he added.