The by-elections in February and the Senate polls last week have exposed the fragility of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government. The quest for an urgent vote of confidence was motivated by a sudden sense of insecurity in the PM.
The developments have also exposed the PTI leadership’s moral bankruptcy. In the Daska by-election the PTI made use of government machinery to win, as it knew that it could not succeed in fair and free polls. Finance Minister Hafeez Sheikh suffered defeat, which was the biggest political setback in the PTI’s tenure, because he could not get the 16 extra votes that the ruling coalition possessed. Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed maintains that “17 PTI MPs were disloyal and 13 took money” and that the PM knows who did not vote for him. Mr Khan decided to take no action against the corrupt in his party obviously because this would have deprived him of the majority he enjoys in the National Assembly, leading to his government’s fall. Mr Khan sought a vote of confidence even from those he knows to be dishonest because he prefers to stick to power, principles or no principles. Knowing well that the opposition enjoys a majority in the Senate the PM has predicted the success of his candidate as Chairman Senate. Mr Khan can win the Senate chair only if he uses the tactics for which he condemns the opposition.
To continue to remain in power the PTI government’s reliance on those who matter is bound to increase. This might help Mr Khan and his sponsors for a while, but would eventually turn out to be harmful for both. Remarks like Sheikh Rasheed’s recent, “the Army stands with Imran and there are no chances of the fall of government” justify the opposition’s criticism of the intelligence agencies’ intervention in politics and the warning by the PDM that if they adopt the same attitude in the elections of the Senate chairman and deputy chairman, the PDM will be forced to place the facts before the nation. The support by those who matter has encouraged the government to ignore the problems of the man in the street. Whatever the outcome of the opposition’s planned long march, the common man’s unrest could one day get translated into a spontaneous mass movement against an already vulnerable government.
