Like there’s a first time for everything, there’s also a last for everything that was wrong. Since the departure of former president Pervaiz Musharraf there have been a lot of things that happened for the last time.
The departure of Musharraf was us seeing a dictator for the last time. Why I say this because that there were ample weak moments of democracy since Musharraf’s exit, but we saw restraint. There were many long marches, many sit ins, many national level protests, many terror related incidents but the establishment did not fill any vacuum created by civilians clashing.
We saw for the last time any president dissolving the assembly. Yes, it was Zardari who gave the power of dissolving the assembly (58-2b) back to the parliament. Or Mr Arif Alvi would have dissolved the assembly as soon as Shahbaz Sharif was swore in.
We saw for the last time NROs being given to political rivals. The public and the media is now well aware of what kind of concessions were given to each other to keep mum.
We saw for the last time just two parties tossing power between themselves, as now there is a 3rd entity in the assembly. The mechanism of the assembly have been running rightly now that the opposition really plays its part no matter who it is.
We saw for the last time people welcoming ouster of a PM. It was when Nawaz Sharif was showed the door by the court.
We saw for the last time only men flocking at jalsas in Pakistan which was the beginning of real change. When households started questioning their old political inclinations.
We saw for the last time electables going undefeated. Such big names met crashes in the 2018 elections. Ch Nisar, Mualana Fazalur Rehman, Dr Farooq Sattar etc. all met a different ending.
We saw for the last time any party taking any sort of shady money from shady companies after the decision of ECP against PTI.
And similarly, this was the last time horses were traded.
Though there still is a loophole of corruption even after all these procedures, decisions and orders of the court, but it is this point from where party swappers would be looked down upon with betrayal or sympathy.
The loophole that still looms over election in the assemblies is calling in sick. Any member would still have a trump card of being unwell and not showing up for polling, but that too would now mount immense inter-party pressure on the member(s).
This episode of killing the trade of horses in the assembly took a lot of time but came out right.
People will remember faces of people roaming around in Sindh House sipping cola. People will remember the battle in the court and then physical tussles in assemblies. The pulling of legs and then the hair, and the fake fractures and the real cracks in the family.
This was surely the last time anyone crossed the floor for some money.
He is a Pakistani journalist, documentary producer and teaches journalism at various universities in Lahore. He is a silver medalist in MPhil Mass communication and has reported and edited for a number of English print media organizations in Pakistan.
