Islamabad is now infested by ideologically driven young men and women, none of whom are just going to walk away without having something to show for their troubles. The problem is that the two leaders, Allama Tahirul Qadri and Imran Khan, have presented such maximalist demands that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government cannot possibly accept them. And, with every passing day, without some agreement the protesters will become more resolved to stay put until they or at least their leaders get what they want. So we should perhaps examine if there is indeed a way out of this seeming impasse. By the time what I write sees the proverbial light of day, the situation might already have been defused though, without some serious conflict resolution, I do not see that happening over the next two days. Before I proceed to the heart of the matter (or is it now a matter of the heart), I have one observation to make. Just as Islamabad is presently infested by ideologically driven young people, our newspaper opinion pages are getting infested by people in the process of getting advanced degrees in conflict resolution. Now to the actors in this drama. First let us see whether the people going through all this trouble can somehow be placated and made to go home even if the two leaders want to stay on. In my opinion, the best way to defuse the situation is to win the hearts and minds of the protestors sitting around parliament and threatening to occupy the Prime Minister’s (PM) secretariat and residence. For people camping out in the open for almost a week, however committed to the ‘cause’ they might be, the chance to use a proper bathroom, have a shower and a decent hot meal might be quite enticing. So, the federal government should adjourn parliament, send all its employees home for a week with full pay, do the same for the PM secretariat and PM’s residence as well as the presidency and start inviting a few hundred of the protestors every hour to come into these places and use the facilities. And, on their way out, give them a nice hot meal. I am convinced that after two days of such treatment many protestors might feel a bit favourably towards the PML-N government and many of the protestors might then even start thinking about going home. But even if they do not decide to go home, at least for a change ordinary people will get a chance to use the lavish facilities they pay for. The important actors next in line are the Sharifs. First it is important to dispel any idea that Pakistan and Punjab are under democratic rule. The PML-N government in both places is about as close as one can get to elected dictatorships. The Sharifs run things through a close circle of cronies, members of the extended family and sycophantic bureaucrats. After being elected as PM for the third time, Mian Nawaz Sharif was thought to have become more enamoured of democratic norms. Sadly that was not to be. Whether the 2013 elections, especially in Punjab, were manipulated to provide PML-N with its majority is beside the point. The PML-N won in Punjab on a single issue and that was load shedding. After a year in government, the PML-N has not made any improvement in load shedding and, as a matter of fact, most people are paying twice as much as they were under the PPP dispensation for the same amount of electricity. Besides this, rampant inflation has made many of the PML-N supporters a bit disaffected. Sadly for the PML-N, even in the best of times their supporters are not given to public demonstrations of love and affection for their leaders. So the PML-N government in Punjab has to depend on the police and the army to help them neutralise Imran Khan’s and Tahirul Qadri’s activities. And, from the looks of it, neither of these two has any interest in quashing or quelling the ongoing marches and dharnas (sit ins). The third set of actors is Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri themselves. Both come from different political perspectives and have different sources of support from the public and perhaps their general political aims are also dissimilar but they are united in one aspect and that is to bring an end to the present PML-N dispensation. What should replace that is something neither Imran nor Qadri have elucidated in any organised way. All we know is that something new, different, more democratic, more righteous and more egalitarian will emerge once these two have brought an end to PML-N rule. What exactly that new dispensation will be and how it will include all the above-mentioned qualities is anybody’s guess. Of course, the general presumption is that either of these two wants to lead the new dispensation if and when that comes into existence. The fourth major and perhaps most important actor in this scenario is of course the army. Almost all those who find both Qadri and Khan a trifle peculiar in their politics believe that, behind these two, is what was once known as the establishment. Personally, I do not think that the army or any of its ‘agencies’ are directly responsible for the march/dharna situation. But, as a consequence of the agitations led by Khan and Qadri, the PML-N government has already been diminished considerably. And it is also clear that the Sharifs have lost all ability to control the law and order situation in the country, especially in Punjab. Whether the Sharifs can recover that ability is unlikely and this makes the army stronger from a political point of view. However, even if the generals are not directly responsible for much of anything, I am sure that whenever a few of them get together these days, they must be having a chuckle or two over the ‘bloody civilians’ and their follies. The writer has practiced and taught medicine in the US. He can be reached at smhmbbs70@yahoo.com