Buckling under pervasive and extreme criticism for ruling by ordinance the Pakistan

Tehreek-e-Insaaf government decided to get its decrees rubber stamped by the

Parliament to avert any contention of being undemocratic. However, the way it has
pushed these ordinances through the lower house was more egregious than the
promulgation of the ordinances itself. If getting rid of undemocratic tag was the
government�s objective, it has failed miserably the parliament is more polarized
and dysfunctional than ever.
The reason the Parliament and the whole democratic exercise exists is to ensure
than every proposal is adequately debated, its provisions analyzed and all
different political stances incorporated to come to a consensus based solution. Yet
the PTI only thinks of it as an annoyance, a formality to suffer through instead of
the core constitutional requirement that it is.

Under the direction of Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri, the government got 11 ordinances
passed in a space of half an hour. The legislators were given no time to debate the
motions, no time to read the provisions or hold proper debate on any of them. This
happened despite the opposition putting up a ferocious protest against this assault
on democratic principles.
Not only did the Deputy Speaker not take any cognizance of the protests which he is
obligated to do he forged ahead with the explicit purpose of passing the motions.
This is in clear violation of his oath and duty; the minute the Speaker and the
Deputy Speaker take oath, they stop being members of their parties and become
impartial arbiters that pledge their loyalties only to the Parliament. Yet the
deputy Speaker in this instance was only acting as a lieutenant of the PTI; serving
its interests to the exclusion of everything else.
What the PTI did in the Assembly was not democratic, but a brazen imposition of
numerical strength. At no point was the opposition consulted, at no point were the
allowed to intervene. With such a perverse mindset displayed by the ruling party,
it is not surprising that the opposition is besieging the capital. This government,
whose leader railed against what he called a royal style of governance by past
governments, is now doing something far worse. The prime institute of democracy,
the touchstone of the people�s mandate, has been turned into mockery of what it is
supposed to be.
The PTI has to mend its ways, it cannot spurn democracy and continue calling itself
democratic.