Daily Times

Former prime minister Imran Khan had, indeed, played an extraordinary hand by announcing his candidacy in an overwhelming seven national assembly seats up for grabs in crucial by-elections.

The splendour of a naturally-gifted captain and his iron-clad reign over his supporters’ hearts could be felt thumping on the streets way before the official announcements started making rounds on television screens. Khan is, clearly, enjoying an upper hand as the support showered upon him in Punjab assembly by-elections continues with far more vigour.

What political pundits were calling out to be a “referendum” on his popularity has rolled out to the great dismay of the ruling coalition, which was quite understandably hoping for a change in the narrative.

The entire country must have breathed a sigh of relief as a very heated day comfortably cushioned on a powder keg was brought to an end without any intense activity.

Violence on, and around the polling events, has become a part of our national ritual in the past few years, where everything from vile abuse to gunshots is on the table. However, now that Mr Khan has umpteenthly shown the graph of his public appeal, dangling the report card in front of his rivals, one can’t help but wonder about the multi-million rupee price tag of this exercise.

Jolly good, if he decides to enter the same parliament, which he and his party members had stormed out of, and become a part of the executive. But a slight look at the bonanza of reservations with the sovereignty of the present House and holes in the blueprint start getting bigger. It is not the battle of a single leader and hence, Mr Khan’s selected constituency would leave the other open for yet another round of by-elections.

Isn’t this tragic that the entire duration of any government is spent orchestrating exercises to complete the numbers game when a long, long list of crippling matters languishes in the cauldron in anticipation of the same devotion and resources in the meantime. The irony of a cash-strapped economy happily setting the stage, one after another, could not ring any louder! *