Time is not on your side Mr. Prime Minister!

“All is not well in the State of Denmark”, Mr. Prime Minister. Stop depending on a lot of your ministers, advisers, and the army of your spokespersons. The majority of them are either lying to you or misleading and misguiding you. Take stock of issues surrounding your government in the Centre as well as the Buzdar government in Punjab.

Time is of the essence and certainly not on your side. You are almost in the last leg of your tenure as the last year of the 5-year term is considered to be an election year.

First of all, you have to fulfil your responsibility to protect national institutions including the Armed Forces, Judiciary, Election Commission, and National Accountability Bureau among many others.

You already have an extra burden of bulldozing legislation in the joint session of the Parliament after having failed to get them passed in the National Assembly and the Senate which is a constitutional requirement. Your government has been running the affairs of the State through ordinances issued regularly since you do not have the required majority in either house of the Parliament.

You must be aware that if the Opposition or any individual brings the matter to the Supreme Court, these bills passed in such a terrible hurry would not stand ground. If the apex court sets them aside what will happen then? And let me assure you that is quite a possibility.

Ready reference is the NRO given by former president Pervez Musharraf to political parties including the Pakistan People’s Party and the Muttahida Quami Movement among many others of different sectors. The Supreme Court threw the said NRO into the dustbin.

Have you ever reviewed what has happened to your tallest claim that you would make all those accountable who plundered the national wealth across the board? Despite the passage of three years, no major case of corruption could be proved in the courts by your favourite National Accountability Bureau.

Your slogan of across-the-board accountability has proved to be a big misnomer since a large number of politicians including the former chief minister, ministers, advisers, and bureaucrats have sought refuge under your PTI umbrella.

For any failure of your government Mr. Prime Minister, you and your army of spokespersons have been using the oft-repeated mantra of previous rulers were thieves and looters. No one buys this logic any further because there is no dearth of looters and thieves under your nose. Be they guilty of sugar and Atta gangs, be they responsible for the Peshawar Metro scam, Malam Jabba scandal, Petrol, IPPs, medicines mafias, they were allowed to go scot-free. Is there any plausible explanation for this criminal neglect?

It is unfortunately under your regime that the top brass of the Army and the judiciary are being blamed for the follies of your government. Why was the appointment of the new Director-General of the Inter-Services Intelligence allowed to be made controversial? Was that also because of former rulers’ fault?

It was only because of irresponsible statements of your ministers and un-elected spokespersons who were of the candid view that it was the time for the Prime Minister to establish his writ. Such an approach was both ill-logical and unnecessary particularly keeping its timing in mind.

In addition to what has been said above, the recent controversy of former chief justice being blamed for disqualifying the former premier Nawaz Sharif under pressure from certain quarters.

Why have your ministers and advisers besides spokespersons jumped into the fray to defend Saqib Nisar and did not leave it to the courts to take action including Sou Motto? This indicates that they think their leader Imran Khan, as well as the party, were the beneficiary of the then Chief Justice’s alleged bias.

How Mr. Prime Minister can you run the affairs of the State under a democratic system if you are not even on speaking terms with the Opposition? Is it not a fact that on all occasions of national dialogue, you opted to stay out? Be that the issues of Indian annexation of Kashmir by India revoking Article 370 of its constitution; national security, Indian aggression by violating Pakistan’s airspace, the fate of Gilgit Baltistan, elections in Azad Kashmir, briefing sessions in the Parliament or at the Army’s General headquarters, you never thought they are vital enough issues that you should be attending these occasions.

The little time that is at your disposal, you must rise above petty party considerations and act like the country’s Prime Minister and address all these issues with a clear mindset to resolve them before it is too late. Must your aids help you bring your opposition friends closer and stop adding to the list of your enemies which is getting larger every passing day?