EDITORIAL: As it happened on Sunday, the much-awaited ‘million-man power show’ promised by Prime Minister Imran at Islamabad’s Parade Ground was a dream that remained a dream and his revelation of the much ballyhooed ‘surprise’ surprised none — even when he tried harder to give authenticity to his ‘surprise’.
He put on his reading glasses, took out a crumpled piece of paper from his jacket’s inner pocket and brandished it to the anxiously waiting gathering as the ‘surprise’ he had promised to make public. But that’s all he said, because the surprise being a state secret he would only show it off-record to a curious disbeliever. Nothing more on it he said except for a brief hint that his government is under a threat of ouster, bankrolled by foreign powers, and drew a parallel between his government’s ordeal and the fate of Pakistan People’s Party founder Zulfikar Bhutto’s.
Two questions: If there is an international conspiracy against Pakistan why then it is such a secret that the prime minister is not prepared to share its details with the people of Pakistan. He must identify those who seek to pervert the course of democracy in the country.
Moreover, do the governments in this age of Information Technology still communicate through letters written on paper, especially if the issue is as critical as a plan to topple a foreign government? It would be in the national interest that the prime minister publicly reveals the whole truth. The people would like to know more about the said international conspiracy and if it is being bankrolled from outside who are the abettors and beneficiaries in Pakistan.
If that’s not done then the people in general and political opposition in particular would tend to believe that the ‘surprise’ that the prime minister has thrown up is nothing more than a political stunt on his part. As for Imran Khan’s claim that he is being victimized for pursuing an ‘independent’ foreign policy, it should be known to him that in international politics there is no such thing as ‘independent’ foreign policy, much less for a state like Pakistan given its geostrategic location and addiction to borrowing to finance its penchant to live beyond its means.
It increasingly appears that the regime-change demons are homegrown. Imran Khan needs to do some soul searching as to why a bunch of otherwise ideologically disjointed opposition has been able to successfully close ranks with a view to toppling his government. And for that to happen, the main threat emanates from within his own party and coalition partners.
The so-called party defectors accuse him of monopolizing governance decision-making, ignoring the inputs of parliament and federal cabinet. But that appears to be now as something which happened in the past. The battlefield is now no more the Parade Ground or Srinagar Highway; it is now within the precincts of Parliament House where the tabling of no-confidence motion against the prime minister was finally ‘sanctified’ yesterday by deputy speaker of National Assembly before he adjourned the house for March 31. Hours later, however, the situation took another interesting turn when ruling party announced PML-Q leader Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi as its candidate for Punjab chief minister-ship after incumbent chief minister Usman Buzdar of PTI presented his resignation to the prime minister.
The government move is clearly aimed at denying the PML-N, its principal foe, an outcome in the country’s largest and most important province that the latter is likely to achieve in the National Assembly through a joint opposition-sponsored no-confidence motion against the prime minister in the next few days. However, it increasingly appears that the ‘game’ is likely to end in a ‘draw’, although the opposition has already checkmated the PTI-led coalition government at the Centre.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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