In Pakistan, the government’s angry politics of defamation are hurting democracy
“Thieves! Dacoits! Plunderers!” These are often repeated words in and outside of Pakistan’s parliament, and are used in federal cabinet meetings by the Prime Minister himself. They carry an almost venomous tone and have spawned several variants with near-expletives bandied about by Khan’s close aides including several cabinet members. All are aimed, of course, at political opponents.
During his election campaign, now Defence Minister Pervez Khattak even went as far as to say that houses bearing the flags of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and her party were brothels. Both were issued notices by Pakistan’s election commission for using inappropriate language.
The language of Pakistani politics has become distinctively coarser over the past year. Needling is par for the course in politics, which often everywhere thrives on anger and even spite. After all, the stakes for power are high and that is just the nature of the beast. In places as diverse as Taiwan and Turkey, legislators often get physical and even American, British and Indian parliamentary proceedings can get verbally nasty.
So, relatively, is it really that bad in Pakistan or does the country simply get exaggerated bad press?
The reality is that it is alarming how the venom spewed out in Pakistan’s political landscape is now fuelling hate against different political parties and increasing intolerance. The vernacular press in particular carries little news and mostly statements from various segments of the overall political leadership full of accusations, allegations and innuendo.
The language of Pakistani politics must not become so hate laden that its 'otherization' effect makes conciliation politics in a fractured polity all but impossible.
Adnan Rehmat
The atmosphere is toxic. The Prime Minister and his cabinet members – as well as ruling party supporters – lead the charge and often use what some might see assertively derogatory language when deriding their political opponents. Calls to dispense with the trials of opposition leaders and to instead ‘simply hang the culprits’ are not uncommon, casually made and reported.
The parliamentary proceedings are not immune either and often disrupted by incendiary language. After opposition benches heckled the finance minister as he presented the annual national budget in the National Assembly last month – a longstanding tradition – the following day, PTI lawmakers simply did not let the opposition leader, Shahbaz Sharif, speak on the budget and protested aggressively against him.
It took three days of intense heckling, invective and catcalls before saner elements on both sides intervened and the budget debate could resume. But not before the treasury members reminded Shahbaz about a dozen times that he had no right to talk of broken promises by Khan when he had himself failed to keep up his vow of ‘dragging’ Zardari out to the streets and extracting all the looted wealth of the nation from him.
When Khan made his maiden appearance in the National Assembly after being elected Prime Minister, he was heckled and labelled a ‘selected prime minister,’ a slight it seems he has neither forgotten nor forgiven, with the phrase being banned in the Lower House of Parliament last month.
But himself, Khan often uses Twitter to provide a steady stream of insults, often personal in nature, against the Sharif and Bhutto families. Many allegations of corruption and plunder are outlandish, with all manner of crimes real and imagined pinned on political opponents.
This is a far cry from the politics of the past ten years when even angry politicians almost never let go of sophistry in their political discourse. While in his early days, Nawaz Sharif is not unknown to have made unpalatable remarks against the assassinated Bhutto, he is better known for a soft-spoken demeanour, and somebody known to handle his anger by throwing counter-questions at his detractors.
Bhutto herself rarely used the kind of language that has unfortunately become the hallmark of Khan’s government.
For now, the onus falls on Khan to engender a more inclusive polity by toning down his diatribe – he is, after all, Prime Minister of Pakistan, not just leader of his party and its voters. The language of Pakistani politics must not become so hate laden that its 'otherization' effect makes conciliation politics in a fractured polity all but impossible.
Hurling insults in the Parliament (and outside it) must not kill functional democracy in Pakistan. For all our sakes, Pakistani leaders need to tone it down a notch.
