EDITORIAL: It seems whatever progress was made towards a much-needed huddle between all political parties, including PTI (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf) after civil society representatives forced some flexibility out of Imran Khan, is already lost because of the government’s insistence on delaying elections in Punjab and KP (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa).
The PTI chief and his lieutenants made it amply clear, when they agreed to sit and talk with other parties “for the sake of greater national consensus”, that they were only interested in the one-point agenda of the road to said elections.
But that path has already become a lot more controversial and PTI is more likely to go to court, once again, rather than try and talk the government into revising its position.
It remains to be seen how potent PTI’s reaction is going to be. But it’s fair to say that the latest government-opposition confrontation has spread so much toxicity in the political and social realms that civil society activists have been desperately looking for anything that would get all parties to break the ice and sit across the table.
And just when they were able to convince Imran Khan that “other parties were also stakeholders in the political and electoral processes”, the government has given the clearest indication yet that it is in no mood to hold the election at least till October.
On Wednesday it pleaded with the Chief Justice of Pakistan to review the March 1 ruling regarding elections in the two provinces, citing security challenges and also warning that split polls would “further deepen the political crisis and create chaos in the country”.
Now the ball is squarely in the court’s court and since it has already vowed to intervene if ECP (Election Commission of Pakistan) fiddles with the election timeline, the coming days and weeks are likely to see it in yet more uncharted and controversial waters.
It needs to be said that sometimes the country’s top politicians give the impression that they care far more about their own pursuits than the country’s survival. These are very fragile times, after all, with political, economic and security situations imploding and threatening to push Pakistan into the list of failed states.
The economy is on the brink of default with only the possibility of resuming the IMF (International Monetary Fund) programme, and more such programmes after it, giving faint hope. And TTP (Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan) is all set to attack the state once more just when it is at its weakest. Yet all the senior-most politicians can do is spew venom at each other, with each party head considering only himself capable of leading the country through this perfect storm.
The on the ground situation, however, requires declaring an economic-political-security emergency and getting all relevant stakeholders to put all their difference aside and hammer out viable solutions till the country is back on its feet.
Otherwise, there’s a good chance that whoever wins this ugly slugfest presides over a country that is defaulting and facing out-of-control insurgencies just when unemployment and hyperinflation peak.
Surely, it would do little good to blame others at that time, especially from the point of view of the common folk.
So it would be much better to bury the hatchet now and work out differences, for the good of the country and its many, many people, while there is still some time left.
Politics is the art of the possible, after all, which requires give and take from all sides. Nobody can want it all and then also take it all.
And it’s a shame that our biggest political parties and most respected political leaders have not yet acquired the political maturity to know and understand these things. And it’s much worse that the people must suffer for their leaders’ mistakes.
Everybody fighting for Pakistan must push all political parties into urgent dialogue about the country’s most pressing issues.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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