PRIME Minister Imran Khan, who is known for his bold assessment and remarks, said on Thursday that the next three months were important for the PTI Government.
In an interview, he, however, categorically stated that the relationship between the Government and the Army was exemplary, adding that his Government, together with its allies, would complete its constitutional tenure of five years.
The Prime Minister did not explain what he meant when he referred to the importance of the next three months for his Government but obviously he was hinting at the challenges that the ruling party faces due to a variety of factors and reasons.
But his assertion that the Government would complete its term clearly shows that he was fully confident of securing continued support of the allied parties and moving towards successful completion of his tenure as mandated by the people in the last general election.
No one would doubt the statement of the Prime Minister that his Government enjoys exemplary ties with the Army as a day before a spokesman of the defence forces also minced no words in clarifying that rumours about any deal with former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif were baseless and that the Army was a subservient institution of the Government and acts on its directives.
This is a message that the Army is neutral and has no intention of meddling into political affairs.
The opposition too is at a low key these days, may be due to chilling weather, which prohibits any major undertaking but both the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) and Pakistan Peoples Party have publicly stated that they would march on the capital, albeit on different dates.
PDM has already announced to organize its long march on Pakistan Day (23 March 2022) but it is not sure how the opposition plans to manage the protest during a period when second phase of local government elections is slated and JUI(F) of Maulana Fazlur Rehman, buoyed by its impressive victory in the first phase, would obviously like to participate in electioneering with enthusiasm to consolidate its gains further.
But there are chances of a show-down as well if the opposition insisted on the march on March 23 as the Government has cleverly planned to host another OIC Foreign Ministers Conference on March 22 announcing that the guests would witness the Pakistan Day parade.
PPP too has embarked upon a two-pronged strategy of a march on the federal capital and the no-confidence motion against the Prime Minister.
After a meeting of the Central Executive Committee (CEC) of the party, Chairperson PPP Bilawal Zardari announced that the party would commence its march against the Government on March 27 from Karachi (Mazar-e-Quaid).
Given vulnerabilities of the opposition parties, it is unlikely that they would be able to pose any formidable challenge to the stability of the Government, especially when Prime Minister Imran has demonstrated his deftness in handling crises and keeping his problematic allies to his side.
However, the biggest threat to the Government is the reaction of the people to the unending inflationary trends and a glimpse of which was witnessed at the convention of PTI workers in Abbottabad where Defence Minister Pervez Khattak had to face embarrassment when workers raised slogans against inflation.
It is also widely believed that the PTI suffered defeat in LG elections in KP mainly because of frustration of the people over policies that are triggering price-hike.
The situation may deteriorate further during second phase of LG polls in KP and LG elections in Punjab as another wave of unbearable inflation is in the offing due to the supplementary finance bill that the Government has already tabled in Parliament which envisages imposition of taxes worth Rs.343 billion.
The arguments offered by the Government to defend price-hike amount to rubbing salt on wounds as the phenomenon is attributed to rise in prices of goods in the international market, forgetting the impact of massive devaluation of the rupee, increase in taxes and duties and repeated hikes in prices of POL products and electricity and gas tariffs.
It is also unfortunate that the Government is completely ignoring the plight of fixed income groups as it is not willing to increase salaries and pensions despite record increase in inflation.
There are reasons to believe that the Government might face serious problems if it fails to address concerns of the people vis-à-vis rising inflation if it really wants to take its other people-friendly initiatives and programmes to their fruition in the remaining period of its rule.
It may also be pointed out that the Scrutiny Committee of the Election Commission has submitted its report on the case pertaining to foreign funding of the PTI and its findings are being interpreted differently by the opposition and the ruling party.
It has to be seen what action and decision the ECP takes on the report, which will have either favourable or negative implications for the political future of the party.
