If the government didn’t expect the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) to be outraged by the federal cabinet’s approval of the controversial National Census-2017 then it just wasn’t paying any attention at all to the number-one concern of one of its most crucial coalition partners in the National Assembly all this while. “When we joined the government, the census was our first point,” MQM Convener Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui reminded everybody at a press conference just the other day, clearly frustrated as the party seems torn between staying in the coalition and quitting it and taking to the streets in protest. Yet understandable as the party’s position is, it is also true that they don’t really have much of a choice in the matter at the end of the day. They can’t really just withdraw from the cabinet and end up in no-man’s land in the present circumstances, and then contest the local-bodies elections according to the present census. In the most likely scenario they will hold a few more press conferences, perhaps even opt for a small show of numbers in some corner of Karachi, and eventually try and remind the government about its promise to conduct an audit of randomly selected blocks from the census to remove “massive lacunae” in the controversial count.
Still, it was unwise of the ruling party to treat a coalition partner in this manner, especially since it had given its word to MQM about the audit before they became partners in the government. Even if this step was necessary, which it was most certainly not, the government should still have explained things to MQM and at least taken it into confidence. The way it has acted it is only natural for allies to feel as if they are being taken for granted. And at a time when 11 opposition parties have united on a one-point agenda of sending the government packing, one would expect the ruling party to be a little more prudent in its treatment of allies. Earlier, it was guilty of giving a cold shoulder to Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), which is a central part of its coalition government in Punjab, and then the prime minister himself had to visit the Chaudharys of Gujrat to put out the fire. Now the MQM affair has once again exposed the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI’s) penchant for ignoring partners in government as well as taking so-called U-turns on some very important matters, even if it means breaking its earlier promises.
Usually, governments calculate best-and worst-case scenarios before taking steps that could seriously dent the ruling coalition. But it doesn’t seem that PTI has taken any such precautionary measures. And while MQM has said that it does not intend to blackmail the government in any way, which actually exposes its own weak position more than anything else at the moment, who is to say what could happen if it does jump the gun, so to speak? By acting like it has done, PTI only feeds the narrative of its critics who claim that the party never graduated beyond the politics of opposition. It still seems to struggle with the realisation that once in power, a party is constitutionally bound to act in a way that protects all the people and the state.
Upsetting allies, especially without reason and in times of extraordinary political turbulence, risks creating a situation in which the country and the people can suffer. People are already distressed to a great extent because of all the problems brought about by the pandemic. The last thing they need is a government coalition tearing at the seams just when all opposition parties have joined hands to march on the capital. Considering the circumstances, PTI should immediately consult with all stakeholders and make sure that no ally is being unduly let down. And, beyond coalition headaches, it must also take issues like controversies caused by the census very seriously rather than brush them under the carpet. It is becoming increasingly clear that, as the prime minister himself put it just a few days ago, this government did not do its homework properly. One can only hope that it has learnt the more important lessons by now.
https://www.brecorder.com/news/40045371/coalition-problems
Coalition problems : Editorial in Business Recorder,Dec 29, 2020
If the government didn’t expect the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) to be outraged by the federal cabinet’s approval of the controversial National Census-2017 then it just wasn’t paying any attention at all to the number-one concern of one of its most crucial coalition partners in the National Assembly all this while. “When we joined the government, the census was our first point,” MQM Convener Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui reminded everybody at a press conference just the other day, clearly frustrated as the party seems torn between staying in the coalition and quitting it and taking to the streets in protest. Yet understandable as the party’s position is, it is also true that they don’t really have much of a choice in the matter at the end of the day. They can’t really just withdraw from the cabinet and end up in no-man’s land in the present circumstances, and then contest the local-bodies elections according to the present census. In the most likely scenario they will hold a few more press conferences, perhaps even opt for a small show of numbers in some corner of Karachi, and eventually try and remind the government about its promise to conduct an audit of randomly selected blocks from the census to remove “massive lacunae” in the controversial count.
Still, it was unwise of the ruling party to treat a coalition partner in this manner, especially since it had given its word to MQM about the audit before they became partners in the government. Even if this step was necessary, which it was most certainly not, the government should still have explained things to MQM and at least taken it into confidence. The way it has acted it is only natural for allies to feel as if they are being taken for granted. And at a time when 11 opposition parties have united on a one-point agenda of sending the government packing, one would expect the ruling party to be a little more prudent in its treatment of allies. Earlier, it was guilty of giving a cold shoulder to Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), which is a central part of its coalition government in Punjab, and then the prime minister himself had to visit the Chaudharys of Gujrat to put out the fire. Now the MQM affair has once again exposed the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI’s) penchant for ignoring partners in government as well as taking so-called U-turns on some very important matters, even if it means breaking its earlier promises.
Usually, governments calculate best-and worst-case scenarios before taking steps that could seriously dent the ruling coalition. But it doesn’t seem that PTI has taken any such precautionary measures. And while MQM has said that it does not intend to blackmail the government in any way, which actually exposes its own weak position more than anything else at the moment, who is to say what could happen if it does jump the gun, so to speak? By acting like it has done, PTI only feeds the narrative of its critics who claim that the party never graduated beyond the politics of opposition. It still seems to struggle with the realisation that once in power, a party is constitutionally bound to act in a way that protects all the people and the state.
Upsetting allies, especially without reason and in times of extraordinary political turbulence, risks creating a situation in which the country and the people can suffer. People are already distressed to a great extent because of all the problems brought about by the pandemic. The last thing they need is a government coalition tearing at the seams just when all opposition parties have joined hands to march on the capital. Considering the circumstances, PTI should immediately consult with all stakeholders and make sure that no ally is being unduly let down. And, beyond coalition headaches, it must also take issues like controversies caused by the census very seriously rather than brush them under the carpet. It is becoming increasingly clear that, as the prime minister himself put it just a few days ago, this government did not do its homework properly. One can only hope that it has learnt the more important lessons by now.
https://www.brecorder.com/news/40045371/coalition-problems
Published in Pak Media comment and Pakistan