PPP needs a term out of office to rediscover a vision: Farah Zia

Apparently, the two major contenders of power in the next election viz. the PML-N and the PTI have failed to identify terrorism as a major problem, let alone strategising on how to tackle it

‘I have this sense, this power could be minimised with at least another five year term of a civilian government in power,’ says Farah Zia.

Editor of The News on Sunday (TNS), Farah Zia is a senior journalist and a political commentator. In an interview with Viewpoint, she discusses the performance of the outgoing PPP government (2008-13). Read on:

What in your view have been PPP government’s major failures as well as achievements in the last five years?

I think with this unique distinction of being the first government that completed its constitutional term, this question has been asked and answered so many times that the content has started to appear clichéd, especially the broad categorisation — that the PPP’s coalition government at the centre made historic structural changes but failed on the governance front.

The circumstances under which the government took charge were critical to say the least. The legitimate political forces had been absent from the political scene and the country was under the grip of suicide attacks, energy breakdown and military operations. The PPP itself had just lost its most able leader and looked practically rudderless. The next five years were to be spent alongside an activist judiciary and a confident media that remained in an oppositional mode because of its role in having rendered a military dictator irrelevant. And then the country also saw the worst floods in its history.

With such huge challenges, the mere fact that the government managed to survive for five years in office should be considered a measure of its success. The spirit of reconciliation helped realise the promises contained in the Charter of Democracy, in the constitutional amendments and agreements for sharing of resources between provinces. The consensus to lay down an institutional framework cannot but be praised.

I feel elated to see how smoothly one administration has given way to the caretaker setup (though I don’t agree with the need to have such an arrangement in the first place). I consider it a success of the PPP government that there was no political prisoner in its tenure nor did it make any attempt to gag the media.

Five years is also long enough to go beyond symbolism and show some dividends. Its policies for the farmers did give the agriculture sector the much needed boost. But the list of this government’s failures is abysmally long.

The country is in the grip of a vicious circle of bad law and order and economic meltdown. To add to this is the energy crisis; the government has failed to do anything to meet the country’s short term energy needs. The government sympathisers were hoping it would go to any length to give its voters electricity in at least the last six months but it did not bother.

It did promise to restore the student unions but did not fulfill the promise, with the consequence that the politically-charged youth today talks only about the corruption of the political class and nothing else.

In my opinion, the government failed in reaching out to people, in consoling and giving them hope. After all, it has not been able to protect their lives and property.

Its biggest failing, in my view, is not stating its secular progressive credentials and ceding space to the religious forces. It did not stand up with Salmaan Taseer, Shahbaz Bhatti and even Malala Yusufzai the way it should have. It did not spell out its ideological moorings; today it has become difficult to tell this PPP apart from the PML-N.

How would you assess the trajectory of civil-military relations in the previous five years. While we saw the PPP government retreating on a number of occasions [attempts to rein in ISI, freehand to jiahdists, abandoning the foreign policy to military etc], there were also outright acts of defiance (Mr. Husain Haqqani was sheltered at PM House when he was under trial, President Zardari’s famous avowal to leave the Presidency in ambulance, etc). Your comments.

I think the trajectory of civil-military relations in the last five years has to be understood beyond these acts of retreat and defiance. I have this feeling that the slogans against the military (and not necessarily against Pervez Musharraf) during the Lawyers’ Movement unnerved the military and it decided to watch its interests from the backseat. But watch its interests it must. The PPP government clearly knew it could not cross the red line.

Yes there have been acts of defiance, as you have stated, but each time the civilian government has had to retreat. The military likes to play it smooth, through its proxies. Thus the MFN status is met with DPC rallies to send the message across. Husain Haqqani was sheltered at the PM house, no doubt, but don’t forget he had to resign as ambassador, and as of now he cannot return to this country.

The role of politicians, the courts, and even a section of the media as custodians of ‘national interest’ in this particular case was shameful.

There were some attempts by the military, like the army chief coming to the parliament to brief the legislators about the military operations, and these did have a symbolic value. However, in essence, the military’s power as an institution that defines the state remains intact. Balochistan with its festering wounds is a clear example of military’s control. I have this sense, this power could be minimised with at least another five year term of a civilian government in power.

How would you describe the role of parliamentary opposition? Do you think the PML-N behaved in a more mature way?

Personally, I am satisfied with the role of the parliamentary opposition. The politicians appear to have learned their lesson from the 1990s and did not let their differences ever stoop to that level, within the parliament or outside. The conduct of the house was, by and large, mature. The institutional changes effected by the government had inbuilt safeguards. There could not have been a better decision than to appoint the Leader of the Opposition as head of the Public Accounts Committee.

There were some instances where the pro-establishment sections within the PML-N were said to have secretly met with the army chief. In the Memo Case, Mian Nawaz Sharif himself put his weight behind the army against the elected government. But thankfully these overtures did not derail the system.

While a democratic transition for the first time in Pakistan is arguably a good omen, don’t you think the government’s inability to address pressing economic issues also undermined the democratic cause. If yes, don’t you think that another democratic experience in bad governance will erode the confidence at general level in democracy?

First of all, it needs to be understood that governance is rooted as much in the working of elected government as in some of the permanent institutions, like the civil service, the armed forces, the police and the judiciary etc.

As for addressing economic issues, any government in Pakistan would be constrained by the necessity of keeping and maintaining such a large military. Apart from this, the economic potential is marred by a bad law and order situation. But, apparently, the two other major contenders of power in the next election viz. the PML-N and the PTI have failed to identify terrorism as a major problem, let alone strategising on how to tackle it.

There are, of course, things that could have made an immediate impact, like catering to the short term energy needs on a priority basis and improving the tax to GDP ratio and, in this respect, the outgoing government did not deliver. But the people need to have faith in democracy as a system where the power to oust a government for its bad performance rests with them alone.

I can only hope that we have reached that level of political maturity.

Uncertainty still prevails regarding the next elections. Do you think elections will be held on time and the process will not be derailed? Also, how do you view the post-election scenario? Do you see the PPP-coalition returning to power?

I think the elections will be held on time and I have no reason to believe otherwise. I cannot predict the election result but I do hope that the PPP-coalition does not get voted into power again. I feel the PPP needs to concentrate on the health of the party, do some introspection and engage in active mobilisation particularly among the youth, the professional and intellectual classes. The party is an asset and it needs a term out of office to rediscover a vision for this country.

Farooq Sulehria is currently pursuing his media studies. Previously, he has worked with Stockholm-based Weekly Internationalen. In Pakistan, he has worked with The Nation, The Frontier Post, The News, and the Pakistan. He has MA in Mass Communication from the University of Punjab, Lahore. He also contributes for Znet and various left publications internationally.