A mess no one wants to clean up
THE constitution demands that a session of parliament be called within three weeks of general elections. More than 10 days have already passed since the polls but it is less evident than ever who will form the next government.
The uncertainty is less because of a hung parliament and more because no one seems to want to touch the federal government with a tenfoot pole. On the one hand there is the PML-N. Seemingly in a safe place to have Shehbaz Sharif elected as Prime Minister with the backing of the PPP, the league’s Supremo Mian Nawaz has now expressed that his party should sit in the opposition in the centre.
The proposition makes sense. The League is in a position to form a government in Punjab without any help, and if they get backing from the PPP to have the younger Sharif installed in the PM house they will have to give a share in Punjab to Mr Zardari and the Bhutto heir. But the PML-N is more wary this time. The year and a half they were at the head of the PDM government has taught them that there is little to be gained from coming to government at a time when unpopular decisions are the only option on the table. There is a great political cost to being prime minister just now and the league seems less sure of taking it on.
There is similar dilly-dallying among the PTI. Imran Khan has announced that his crusade for civilian supremacy will be led by the grandson of Field Marshal Ayub Khan, Omar Ayub, as prime minister. Despite this, the PTI has gone back and forth on whether they will try to form a government or sit in the opposition.
The reality is that everyone recognises there is a massive economic mess that needs to be cleaned up. This mess has been made in collaboration by the PPP, the PML-N, the PTI, and the PDM from 2008 to 2024. And while all of them contributed to the mess, no one seems to want to get dirty cleaning it up. But is anyone really surprised? What we do know is that the longer these parties stall the longer the uncertainty will last, which will only make matters worse.