Daily Times Editorial 19 September 2020

FATF proceedings

 

The country may have managed to introduce legislation needed to get off the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF’s) grey list, but the manner in which proceedings in parliament were carried out leave a little something to be desired, to say the least. First the opposition blocked the bills in the Senate, where it has a majority, yet later the three bills and five others were passed in the joint sitting of parliament. Surely that proves, without even having the need to check it, wheeling and dealing on the part of many opposition politicians; something strongly reminiscent of the kind of back door business that resulted in the unexpected defeat of the no-confidence motion against National Assembly Speaker Sadiq Sanjrani last year.
As the combined opposition goes right back to licking its wounds, perhaps it should give a thought or two to just why its ranks are so disunited. For example, 30 PML-N legislators were mysteriously absent from the voting session, even though their leaders seemed worried that the government was leveraging FATF to introduce black laws that suit it and, going forward, no businessmen would be safe from NAB, and all that. In fact, the ruling party was so sure of victory that it almost seemed as if it was somehow assured of it. These things will raise questions that will dominate the prime time TV cycle for the coming days, especially since the opposition’s other threat – the all party meeting that is supposed to come up with a plan to unseat the government – isn’t going too well either.
It’s difficult to figure out which is the bigger shame; our leaders’ inability or unwillingness to stand together even on issues vital to national security or the unending habit of some of our more seasoned politicians to periodically stab somebody in the back, even if it is their own leadership. Then there is the nudge that always seems to come from some place and never fails to affect the behaviour of some very important players. Hopefully the friction between the government and the opposition will not grow into something that affects overall governance. But for that to happen it would help if politicians from both sides of the aisle can begin to see eye to eye on at least some issues.

 

 

Revamping cricket

 

Of all policy matters which Prime Minister Imran Khan may or may not struggle with because of lack of experience or anything else, cricket was something everybody expected to trust him about quite blindly. Yet his decision to revamp the domestic structure by abolishing departmental cricket and giving it a more regional and provincial colour has already stirred a fair bit of controversy. And things only got worse when his decision forced head coach Misbah-ul-Haq, Test team captain Azhar Ali, and ranking player Mohammad Hafeez to personally call on him and request a reconsideration because of all the jobs that have already been lost due to it. They were just told to mind their own business and leave policy-making for those elected for it.
It’s no secret of course that the prime minister favours the regional format over the departmental one since his early playing days. And his reasoning was simple enough to understand, that people would naturally be more interested in watching a match between two cities than two companies, like in Australia, etc. But that simplistic analysis overlooks the rather crucial fact that most players in Australia do not depend on some department’s paycheck to keep their kitchen’s running. Since the present arrangement took care of this very basic need, it also gave players the peace of mind needed to mind their business and play well and deliver results.
Besides, surely the prime minister knows well enough that the system he does not favour at all also produced almost all of our brightest shining stars, right from the beginning. How would players like Hanif Mohammad, Majid Khan, Javed Miandad, Wasim Akram, and even Imran Khan himself have had the opportunity to display and polish their skills if not for departments that patronised the game? Nobody doubts the prime minister’s intention. Surely he knows enough about the game to improve its governance in the country. But he must also take care of all the jobs that his choices are hurting. That, too, is his responsibility as head of state. Only time will tell now if his decision is the right one or not. But in the meantime something will have to be done about all the layoffs. As the system shifts from one structural format to another, there must also be a mechanism to support all the players who will take a hit because of it. Anything less would be unsportsmanlike.

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