AT a time when polarization is deepening with the passage of every day, Islamabad High Court (IHC) deserves appreciation for its sagacious counselling to the country’s political leadership against bringing their conflicts to courts and rather strengthening Parliament by resolving those issues in democratic ways.
Chief Justice Athar Minallah, while addressing a full court reference in his honour on Monday, he asked the political leadership to make efforts to strengthen implementation of the Constitution in the backdrop of scant respect for rule of law.
Justice Athar Minallah, who is being elevated to the top court of the land, stands tall for his pro-democracy posture and beliefs which he has often been emphasizing during hearing of different cases.
He proved his pro-democracy credentials at the time of no-confidence motion when he tried to ensure rule of law and upholding of the relevant constitutional provisions and later as well he repeatedly urged the PTI to return back to parliament.
It is, however, unfortunate that politicians are not listening to the saner advice of the judge and continue to drag courts in political affairs.
Parliament is the supreme institution and its representative character makes it ideal to discuss each and every issue threadbare and come out with solutions to the points of divergence.
In fact, parliament or the politicians did not disappoint the nation when crucial issues were brought before them and satisfactory solutions were found through discussion and dialogue.
It is mainly because of the indifference shown towards parliament that the country is today finding itself in a delicate situation and judicial interventions, when take place at the instance of politicians, are being viewed in a highly partisan manner.
There is no doubt that politicians have the potential to sort out their differences but for this to happen they will have to discard the tendency of seeking hard or soft interventions either from the Establishment or the judiciary.
We hope the advice of the Chief Justice of Islamabad High Court for giving due importance to parliament would be given due consideration by politicians as short cuts benefit none.
Luckily, there are some positive developments on the political horizon that augur well for the overall situation of the country.
PTI, which announced its plans to resume from Tuesday its stalled long march towards Islamabad, has changed its mind and a new schedule of Thursday has been issued.
It is believed that the delay has something to do with backdoor contacts between the Government and the PTI.
President Arif Alvi himself has indicated on a number of occasions that he was ready to facilitate the talks and media reports suggest he is once again active in this regard.
Of course, the two sides have adopted extreme positions on the issue of early elections as the PTI wants snap polls to capitalize on its rising popularity graph as reflected by its easy wins in the recently conducted by-elections and support for its narrative among people.
However, the coalition Government is understandably opposed to the idea of immediate elections as its leadership took bitter and hard decisions for the sake of the national economy, causing dents to its popularity.
The Government also believes it is clearing the economic mess created by the previous Government because of its flawed policies and therefore, it needs time to stabilize the economy and provide genuine relief to the masses before announcing general election.
We have been emphasizing in these columns, time and again, that a delay of a few months would not harm any political party including the PTI as it is also having its governments in Punjab and KP and in fact, the time till elections can be utilized effectively by announcing and implementing welfare-oriented policies and programmes.
It is regrettable that the parties talk about elections but are least bothered to tell the people what plans they have to improve their lot or solve their problems, especially the backbreaking inflation.
Similarly, Pakistan is also facing numerous challenges on security and external fronts and it is also the responsibility of the political leadership to crystallize their ideas to address them squarely.
Mere rhetoric or change of faces would not resolve problems of the people or challenges of the country.
