Attiya Munawer
THE political climate in the country continues to heat up and the intensity of political con frontation is gradually increasing. Then, the question arises as to what will be the outcome of the country seemingly reaching a dead end due to the escalating confrontation between the government and the opposition, and how much irreparable damage will be done to national interests in this turmoil? This question has rightly worried every sensible and conscious Pakistani, with smoky rhetoric from both sides, in which every effort is being made to declare the opposing party hostile to the country and clearly incompetent and dishonest, is fuelling the fire. In this war of words, the fact that the other side also represents millions of Pakistanis but it is not taken into account, while power is something to come or gone.
It is clear that the government is trying to stay in power and oust the opposition, while Prime Minister Imran Khan is proving lucky in that the opposition parties that wanted to oust the government through the movement have their own differences and contradictions. Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman, head of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, who is credited with uniting the opposition under the banner of the PDM, is facing a major uprising within his own party. Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman says that all this is the result of government fabrications and conspiracies. He is right, but this is what happens in such cases. If the opposition wants to oust the government, then the government will use all sorts of tactics to thwart them. Maulana should have already dangled his sage as a precaution.
However, Maulana’s grip on his own party is strong and raising the banner of rebellion of these four gentlemen alone will not harm the party. The real problem is the differences within the opposition on various issues and not being on the same page. There is an ambiguity about the goals of the opposition that the desire to overthrow the present government is in place. Earlier, it was claimed that this government would step down in a month, but now there is a clear disagreement over the resignations, the Senate and the by-elections, and the timing of the resignations is also a matter of controversy. Most PML-N leaders say a decision on resignation or sit-in should be taken after the long march, while some opposition parties want to run in the by-elections and Senate elections, while expecting the PPP to resign and will come out of the Sindh government seems illusory, although Bilawal Bhutto has said that we are ready to make this sacrifice, but in the current situation it does not seem possible to do so in practice.
In the face of this situation, the government seems happy that the opposition movement is disintegrating with its own contradictions and that the PDM has broken the deadlock. In fact, the leaders of the opposition did not even consider the far-reaching motives of their strategy in the words of Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman because Maulana is trying to run the PDM as a political party, even though it is an alliance of opposition parties in which each political party has its own point of view. Maulana himself, even though is not a Member of Parliament, is still holding on to their resignations and for other political parties, resigning is fine as far as claims are concerned, but in practice it is unworkable at a time when the government is stable. Although Maryam Nawaz has become quite an eagle and has gone too far on the instructions of her father based in London, it would be good for the anti-establishment figures to be relieved, but the Muslim League (N) concerns are being raised within. As far as Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is concerned, his zeal and enthusiasm are valuable, but the final decision will be made by his father Asif Ali Zardari and he will never throw his party into the fire of resignations.
At present, the country is in the throes of political chaos and speculation, the government and the opposition is taking over each other or politics is turning into animosity and confrontation. Getting out of this situation is the most important need of the hour for the betterment of the country. Both the government and the opposition should realize the deteriorating situation and come up with an appropriate and acceptable mechanism for their own interests, because the politics of siege and annihilation and walling off each other is not in the interest of the country and the nation. Leadership of political parties should prioritize democratic principles and public aspirations, not criticize each other for their own party, factional and personal interests. The people are watching the ongoing confrontation between their elected representatives in a world of frustration and surprise. The leadership of political parties should put democracy before individuals, because their mistakes have been the main reason for the bedrock of democracy, so learning from the past and choosing the right path for the present and the future is the primary responsibility of the political forces.
—The writer is a regular columnist, based in Lahore.
