A seven-member delegation of PTI met the Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Yahya Afridi on Friday preceded a huddle with the SCBA in which they were supposed to present their recommendations for judicial reforms.
While the SCBA focused on the issue at hand the PTI delegation instead of giving their input on the subject preferred to present 10-point charge sheet against the government which were mainly of political nature barring a few complaints about the treatment extended to PTI leaders by the courts of law.
The PTI delegation also showed concern on the passage of 26th Amendment reiterating that they did not accept it.
That is a political narrative of PTI which the members of the delegation presented not realizing that the Yahya Afridi had become CJ as a consequence of the passage of 26th Amendment and that their meeting with him not only amounted to accepting him as CJ but also acknowledging the legitimacy of the amendment.
It they did not accept 26th Amendment then they should not have met the Chief Justice.
It is indeed a glaring contradiction in their stance.
The Chief Justice reportedly did not respond to PTI’s points, as they deviated from the meeting’s agenda.
This response effectively neutralized PTI’s attempt to gain political leverage.
Emphasizing judicial reforms, the CJ advised PTI to remain within the system and avoid boycotts, a suggestion relevant to their broader conduct, not just their boycott of the Judicial Commission proceedings.
The CJ pointed out that had PTI attended the meetings, some appointments might have been different.
His advice was sagacious, offering a path to alleviate PTI’s political challenges, urging them to re-engage with the political process constructively.
By pursuing the policy of boycotts, violent agitations for the release of the founding chairman of the party, carrying out a sustained campaign against the state institutions, seeking interference of foreign powers and creating rumpus in the sessions of the parliament the party indeed has become mired in the cob-web of its own created circumstances.
Had the party remained part of the system after removal of Imran Khan as Prime Minister through a constitutional process and refrained from fomenting political crisis and instability by pulling out of the Nation assembly and dissolving provincial assembly of Punjab, things would have been quite different from the current situation.
Politics demands sanity rooted in ascendancy of national interests and the internationally recognized norms of democracy.
Political parties are not supposed to orchestrate military coups and attacks on the military installations and monuments of the martyrs as was witnessed on 9th May 2023.
Nor are they expected to denigrate and degrade the state institutions by running mud-slinging campaigns against them at the global level through their social media warriors.
Some of the grievances of PTI might be legitimate and I am not giving clean chit to the government in this regard.
But these issues cannot be resolved through politics of confrontation.
Engagement and dialogue is the name of the game.
In a democratic dispensation political issues are invariably resolved through dialogue and giving space to each other.
In the given situation the PTI needs serious re-thinking if it wants to remain relevant to the future political landscape of the country.
Political dialogue cannot progress if preconditions are imposed, as PTI did when an opportunity for dialogue with the coalition government arose.
PTI demanded the return of its “stolen mandate” and the release of its leaders, including the founding chairman and workers, without presenting any corroborative evidence, making their claims baseless.
This led to the failure of the dialogue.
PTI ignored similar claims by JUI (F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman about his party’s mandate being stolen in KP.
Moreover, 38 petitions filed by PTI-backed independent candidates regarding election rigging and recounting were rejected by election tribunals, further questioning the legitimacy of PTI’s claims.
As far the question of releasing Founding Chairman of the party and its workers is concerned it can only come through the courts of law.
The chairman has been convicted on charges of corruption and the workers for their involvement in violent acts including the 9th May attacks.
They are not political prisoners so making the demand for their release cannot be accepted by the government.
In my view the major issue pertains to rigging in the elections which has been made by the losing parties in all the general elections including the one that brought PTI into power in 2018 and the one held in 2024.
This is the main cause of political instability.
Therefore, the political parties including PTI need to let the bygones be bygones and use their collective wisdom to evolve a system of elections which plugs all the avenues of rigging and also bring relevant reforms in the system of governance.
—The writer is contributing columnist, based in Islamabad. (ashpak10@gmail.com)
