Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has made it clear that it stands for accountability, and it would not be untrue to even call accountability its raison detre. This is indeed a noble cause as corruption and rent seeking behaviour have gotten so firmly embedded in state institutions that corrupt practices have become a norm rather than an aberration. Making government more accountable may not be a panacea for all of Pakistan’s ills, but it would go a long way in putting Pakistan on the path of progress. And chairman PTI Imran Khan must be praised for spending his entire political career for trying to achieve the ideal of a transparent and accountable government.
The Panama Papers controversy brought to light how the rich in Pakistan use tax havens to keep their wealth safe from the country’s taxation system, and the first family’s name in those papers left a lot of questions unanswered. The subsequent impasse of government and opposition over the terms of reference of the proposed judicial commission to inquire over the Panama Papers affair, and the inability of the ruling party to give convincing answers over the allegations raised following the controversy led many observers to say that government was trying to evade the issue and brush it under the carpet. In light of all this, if one strips all of the bombast and the vitriol from Khan’s speeches, he does make an important point: for Pakistan to have substantive democracy, government would have to be responsive over such serious allegations.
However, in his pursuit for an accountable government Khan has developed a distaste for formal forums to voice his grievances, instead using his party’s ability to gather large crowds to issue questionable ultimatums to government. It is strange for the chief of a party that has a sizeable presence in the parliament, and who, at least ostensibly, wishes to come to power through parliament, to be so nonchalant about attending parliamentary sessions. Even if Khan believes that voicing his concerns through parliament would not make any difference because they would fall on deaf ears, still there are some occasions on which national interests must be put first before party interests.
