Of Tamed Horses

Mr. Yusuf Raza Gillani of the PPP was sworn in as Pakistan’s new Prime Minister recently. He heads the Pakistan People’s Party and Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) coalition Government. Before I proceed to the cynical part, I must confess that as a well-wisher of Pakistan, I feel utterly relieved that elections were held peacefully and a Government in opposition to the Presidential brand of politics has been set up.

Be that as it may, I somehow foresee a dangerous trend emerging in the subcontinent (if not the world) politics – that of puppet Prime Ministers. A few days ago, I read that the PPP co-chairman Mr. Asif Zardari (Benazir Bhutto’s widower) remarked, “I want to be a Sonia Gandhi.” Now such a fancy sent a little shiver in me. This tendency to have puppet Prime Ministers like Mr. Manmohan Singh and Mr. Yusuf Raza Gillani is a little disturbing for me. It results in shifting the power centres, while constitutionally, the person holding the post is accountable. It is like agency without responsibility. So, if tomorrow, Mr. Zardari (who, I presume, will hold the maximum amount of say in important policy decisions) advises Mr. Gillani to do something against his will, Mr. Gillani will still have to do that and have to face the consequences of it. Like Dr. Manmohan Singh, Mr. Gillani will presumably have no say in choosing his Cabinet – it will depend (almost entirely) on the whims and wishes of their respective equestrians. Assuming for a moment that their judgment is sound in important policy decisions, they definitely don't/won't participate in the everyday working of the Government. Then, is it safe to leave the day-to-day working of a Union Government to a person whose Cabinet has incompetent people or corrupt politicians, or generally, people who he does not get along well with? The Prime Minister is supposed to be the captain of the ship and if the ship has crew-members who do not listen to him, because they know their captain does not have any say in telling them to behave themselves, isn't the ship bound to face navigation problems?