ADDRESSING a public meeting at Minar-e-Pakistan in Lahore, PTI Chairman and former Prime Minister Imran Khan asked his party workers and supporters to wait for his next call for a march on Islamabad.
In his speech that lasted over an hour, Imran Khan attacked his political opponents left and right and asked his supporters to prepare in streets, cities and villages, vowing not to accept, what he called, ‘imported government’.
As against this, former Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif, after his meeting with a PPP delegation led by Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, called upon all political parties to work together to steer the country out of the prevailing crises and repair the damage done during PTI rule.
The hard-hitting statements of the political rivals are understandable as they are bracing for the next general election but the ground realities demand they should adopt a sagacious approach as nothing is more important than the core interests of the country.
There are no two opinions that Pakistan is faced with daunting economic and security challenges requiring peace of mind and national unity.
It, however, seems the PTI leader is in no mood to change his course of increasing pressure on the new Government in line with his strategy of seeking fresh elections in the immediate future.
He has already held three rallies and is now planning for a march on the Federal Capital despite the fact that his party already organized, what it claimed, one of the biggest power shows in the history of the capital after submission of no-confidence motion by the then joint opposition.
It is, indeed, a tragedy that we are not willing to give any space to our political opponents despite the fact that they are also part of the game and you cannot cause them to disappear.
It is regrettable that Imran Khan neither accepted the role of his rivals as opposition nor is he accepting them in the Government, a change that occurred through a purely constitutional process.
He was not ready to talk to the opposition during the last three and a half years and that became one of the main factors causing the fall of his Government and he is repeating the same mistake when he is in the opposition.
Credit goes to the new Government that has vowed not to resort to the arms-twisting tactics and even Mian Nawaz Sharif, who bore the brunt of PTI’s aggressive policy, is also talking in terms of moving forward together.
Sanity demands both the Government and the Opposition sit together, agree on electoral reforms that should ensure free, fair and transparent elections in the true sense of the word and then agree on a timeframe for fresh elections.
In the meanwhile, the Government should take remedial measures to stop the economic downslide that could gradually push the country towards a Sri Lanka like crisis.
