Opinion
 
Divorce and Reunion
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January 14, 2011
On the floor of the parliament, a marriage of convenience can have inconvenient times. Unlike a marriage in Islam, there are no hard and fast rules for the marriage on the floor. It’s more like an invitation for dance than a trustworthy and lasting partnership.
On the floor of the parliament, a marriage of convenience can have inconvenient times. Unlike a marriage in Islam, there are no hard and fast rules for the marriage on the floor. It’s more like an invitation for dance than a trustworthy and lasting partnership.

The Prime Minister has been in the headlines ever since he showed the door to two of his ministers for alleged “indiscipline”. He doesn’t have any power to penalize corruption in the Cabinet except advising the President to remove the Minister. But instead of firing one, he killed two birds with one stone. The flock of the second bird parted ways with the Prime Minister and later even urged his replacement. The call for replacing the Prime Minister was addressed to the President and the man making the demand didn’t bother to check whether the President, after the 18th Amendment, had any power to dismiss the Prime Minister? That’s enough to show how many players actually know the rules of the game. All they know is that Yusuf Raza Gillani was made the Prime Minister in Murree and one person who can still remove him is the incumbent President. The modus operandi for removing the Prime Minister, however, ought to be different than the relevant Articles of the Constitution. The President shall preferably seek a resignation from the Prime Minister who doesn’t seem to be in such mood. He can’t be thrown out like Mir Zafarullah Jamali and there is no Shaukat Aziz in sight either. Still, the demand for his replacement has become a fundamental condition for any rapprochement between the allies. Interestingly the MQM didn’t make any such demand that could later on block a U-turn. It first asked two of its ministers to instantly resign with a design. For that it found a tricky excuse to appease its voters and confuse the rest of Pakistan. Nobody in that Party in Pakistan ever knew the game plan. One just stops thinking as soon as one joins MQM. That a basic facility in that Party. You don’t have to apply your mind before you make a move even though you may be a Federal Minister. All important decisions are imported from London and implemented regardless of consequence. These days the decision making drama is simultaneously staged in London and Karachi but that’s political showbiz. A Party that asked its two ministers to resign ought to have thought the next step. On the contrary the Party announced it would keep sitting on the treasury benches but with a slight change of conduct, i.e.; oppose the wrongs and support the right. However, in the very next breath the Party formally requested the Speaker National Assembly to re-locate its MNAs on the Opposition Benches. The Speaker did oblige but the Party changed mind. Something happened somewhere. Of course you did see the Prime Minister doing his utmost to win back his 25 voters in the National Assembly but the reversal was not his exclusively effort. Of course, he gathered all the good reasons to temporarily reduce the petroleum prices but he has no permanent solution. The pricing is adjusted every quarter and the Government may have to make a double increase in the next quarter. Mrs. Hillary Clinton criticized the reversal and the financial strains are bound to increase as the plan for RGST is temporarily shelved.

The reunion with MQM was rather swift and the Prime Minister lost no time in contacting the actual trouble maker. It cost him a phone call to Raiwand to make a polite request for a break. The 3-day deadline which was doubled to allow the Government recover from the shocking murder of its Governor in Punjab was being keenly watched by the media with at least one channel counting it in minutes. But MQM’s reverse gear broke the momentum and everyone seeking Gillani’s ouster began recounting. A resolution of no-confidence went out of sight although a faction of the PML(Q) had, a day earlier offered its full support if Sharif’s tabled the required resolution.

On their part, Sharif’s were extremely cautious. They would not initiate any move until all other parties had spelt out their position or declared their cards. For a successful vote, all the groups sitting on the opposition benches had to be one voice. Yet even after dislodging Gillani, they could not find the next Prime Minister. The President, thus, would have no option but to dissolve the National Assembly. Resultantly, all executive powers would shift to the Presidency until the next general election and that is quite undesirable for his opponents. The Prime Minister lately has clarified that he is not the actual target but has become the target only because he is protecting the President (or words to that effect). His bottom-line was that no harm can come to the President “as long as I am there”. If that is the case, the Prime Minister has definitely bought a new lease for the President by his telephonic ambush of no-confidence move against himself. The movers of no-confidence will take their time to gather confidence for playing the next round of the game.

The decision of Altaf Hussain to keep his two men out of the Cabinet Room indicates he is back to the treasury temporarily and would be available for the next round of the game as and when it starts.

New ‘Nikahnama’

When a supporter of the Prime Minister crosses the floor, the Constitution considers it an expression of no-confidence in the Prime Minister. In 1973, the Prime Minister just could not do anything about such a deserter. However a new Article 63A was inserted to check such defection. Now a defector is penalized within days but the 25 MNAs of MQM are somehow immune to any such penalty. How can their loyalty now be trusted by the Constitution although the Prime Minister may be worried least about it. The fact is that with their defection from the Coalition, the Prime Minister lost the confidence of the majority of total membership of the National Assembly.

Taking full advantage of their separate political identity they pulled the carpet from under the feet of the Prime Minister but when he didn’t fall, they came back to the same carpet to stand by the same person.

The Constitution expects the President to keep a close watch of the confidence the Prime Minister enjoys in the National Assembly and in case of doubt he shall ask the Prime Minister to obtain a vote of confidence. That did not happen and the ball was apparently thrown to the other side to move a resolution of no-confidence.

It would be most appropriate for the President to ask the Prime minister to obtain a vote of confidence now so that the nation knows where things stand on the floor of the National Assembly. If the MQM is factually and honestly rejoined the ruling side, it ought to vote for the Prime Minister. That Party can’t be allowed to make a new decision on every new bill before the Parliament.

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