While addressing a rally at Hafizabad the PM said he had joined politics not to check the prices of potatoes and tomatoes, but to make Pakistanis a great nation. Interestingly the plank on which Imran Khan fought the election did not mention Rehmat-ul-lil-Aalamin Authority, a single national curriculum, opening shelter homes and making Pakistanis one nation. While outlining the plan for first 100 days in office, if elected to power, he talked about “making education, employment and other basic rights accessible to the common man”. He envisioned a Pakistan in which a leader is accountable even for the death of an animal. He said “these 100 days reflect the path for which the country was made.” Due to economic mismanagement, the PTI govt has pushed millions down the poverty while there is a failure on its part to tell how many of the promised 5 million houses and 10 million jobs have been provided over the last more than three years. Meanwhile, the government continues to make more promises like constructing “three of the 10 dams being planned” if provided another tenure.
Instead of uniting the nation, the PTI government has contributed to dividing it. Under no previous government was the independent media so harshly treated. PTIs social media trolls have conducted abusive campaigns against independent media anchors, including women. Opposition leaders have been put in jails after media trial. Leaders of mainstream parties have been called thieves, dacoits, shoe shines, and rodents. threatened to be grabbed them by the neck.
No-confidence motion is a normal tactic in democracies. Some of the PTI leaders have suggested to direct PTI workers to surround their houses to stop them from proceeding to Parliament House and to display the pictures of the “traitors” in their cities. Others have suggested to physically stop the dissenters from entering the House. Similarly, the Speaker has been asked to disqualify them before they cast the vote. This shows a defiance of the constitutional procedure which limits the scope of the Speaker to sending a complaint against a dissident to ECP which alone can unseat a legislator. The unconstitutional measures being suggested can lead to country-wide confrontation including rioting. Rationality must prevail with everyone acting in accordance with the constitution including holding the voting on prescribed time.
