Even the most unproductive of chambers of legislatures in parliamentary democracies, the sort that don’t do any legislation at all, except maybe ratifying presidential and gubernatorial ordinances, have to do one thing: pass the budget.
Without the finance act of the next fiscal year, money simply runs out. We’re not talking about development programs here, or even the salaries from the current account; we’re talking about running out of even stationery for government offices here.
And that is the prospect being faced by Pakistan’s biggest province; more than half of our republic, the twelfth largest nation on the face of the planet had it been an independent country.
The strange tug of war between the two Leagues has ensured that the budget isn’t presented, while those of two other provinces have sailed through their respective houses without incident.
The Other League, of course, has few numbers of its own, but is powered by the erstwhile ruling party of the province. Chaudhry Pervez Elahi’s decision to put all eggs in the PTI basket was strange enough to cause fissures in his own family, but for what it is worth, the PTI have assured him that the CM slot is his to take. A veteran of Punjab Assembly maneuvering since the 80s, with a famous, ultimately failed uprising against then CM Nawaz Sharif, Elahi has some experience at this whole business.
The kerfuffle seen the other day when the Sharif administration (if the reader is pedantic about the use of the word ‘government’) was an attempt to deprive them of legitimacy. It seemed to work (explaining why the reader is so pedantic now.)
Though, to be fair, the biggest blow to the legitimacy of the N-League in the Punjab was from the court, when it gave its decision regarding the errant PTI legislators.
The grand pantomime playing out in the Punjab isn’t over yet. Hamza Shahbaz Sharif, for what it is worth, has expressed an approval of the idea of a fresh mandate. Perhaps that is the only way out of this mess. That, or either, or both, of the two sides showing some maturity for the province’s sake.
