EDITORIAL: Elaborating the call issued by Prime Minister Imran Khan for a million-strong rally at D-Chowk in Islamabad on the eve of a vote on the no-confidence motion in the National Assembly, the Information Minister, Fawad Chaudhry, said there would be a ‘sea of people’ which would be un-passable for those who would try to reach the Parliament House and cast their votes. Since the voting is to take place a day later the so-called ‘sea of people’ is likely to stay put at the D-Chowk on the day of no-confidence vote.
But that may not happen — because by then the D-Chowk may as well be in possession of the opposition. “From the door of the Parliament House to Shahrah-e-Dastoor we will hold a historic rally. We would ensure a safe passage for all lawmakers to reach the assembly and cast their votes,” according to Pakistan Democratic Movement president Maulana Fazlur Rehman.
He has also invited other parties in the opposition to join him. The marchers from all over the country would now reach Islamabad on March 25. Earlier, they were scheduled to reach the federal capital on March 23 after the Pakistan Day military parade, but “in deference to the OIC foreign ministers conference” it has been delayed by two days. Since the OIC meeting is scheduled to be held in the National Assembly hall the government had requested the opposition to delay its march, but the PDM had turned down the request.
Perceptibly, they are heading for a possible catastrophic collision. Isn’t it gravely ironic that when the country faces a number of serious geostrategic and economic challenges the leaderships on both sides of political divide are engaged in a deadly confrontation for power? And the net sufferers are the people. The PM says he is not in power to fix rates of tomato and potato; he wants to forge a nation out of what we are; a people whose prime concern is how to make both ends meet.
And as for the PDM it is nothing more than an assortment of crafty, experienced and politically savvy men who find hard to give up on the taste of power they have enjoyed for long. Imran Khan came to power by promising the people a heaven-on-earth ‘Naya Pakistan’. But more than three years on, that kind of Pakistan remains a receding mirage. People are hungry and angry — a bearing the political opposition is trying to build upon to remove him from office. And the tool in the hands of both sides is the common man, who is being called to jam-pack the D-Chowk.
There is no justification for creating a ‘sea of people’ or jam-packing the parliament’s premises. The no-confidence vote against Prime Minister Imran Khan is a parliamentary issue and it should be settled within the four walls of parliament.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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