Daily Times

Despite the successful ouster of PTI from power corridors, PDM seems more at losses than the intended gains. Both PDM and PTI have their peculiar version of victimhood stories disregarding the public miseries. As the saying goes “Politics is not about facts. It is about what politicians can get people to believe.”

Factually, the masses are taking the real brunt of incurable instability. Living respectably and earning the minimum essential bread is no more a simple affair. Fancy tales of past laurels and lofty claims of transforming the lives of deprived masses are too irrelevant to cover up the performance gap of the ruling elite. Undeniably, price hikes remained a major challenge for the PTI government during its three-and-half years’ tenure. Ministers in those days had publicly confessed that contesting the next elections with the burden of economic failure wouldn’t be so easy. Post VONC scenario has brought PDM into a deeper quagmire. Record-breaking inflation and unprecedented devaluation of the rupee are the biggest stains on the performance card of PDM. Crafty exploitation of this factor sufficiently enabled the PTI to conceal its governance failures. The stormy campaign, fiery demagoguery and wild ride of the PTI chairman on the horse of popularity eventually proved detrimental to national stability. All populist manoeuvres ended up inconclusively with varying degrees of political losses. After VONC, the Coalition government of PDM had to survive with just two votes. At that time, had PTI opted to assert on the floor of the National Assembly, the smooth survival of the PDM government for the rest of its one-and-half-year tenure would not be an easy affair. PTI leadership preferred a populist confrontational course over parliamentary struggle by resigning from National Assembly. This obvious unwise move was also prefixed with resign of then CM Punjab Usman Buzdar. Repeated twists and turns in the unresolved political rift between PDM and PTI continuously pushed Pakistan into deeper instability. Ill-preparedness of PDM and the repeated political mistakes of PTI have shaken the politico-economic foundations of Pakistan. Now once Pakistan is suffering multi-dimensional crises, neither PDM has any justification for an impatient VONC nor PTI can point out a single advantage of its retaliatory confrontational campaign comprising destructive episodes of flop long marches, venomous social media campaigns, self-conceived conspiracy theories and unexpected arson on 9th May. In the public’s eyes, this instability is the outcome of unwise political misadventures. The current disappointing situation merits introspection from PDM and PTI with serious heads on their shoulders with eyes on a few irritating developments boggling the minds of the affected masses.

Fancy tales of past laurels and lofty claims of transforming the lives of deprived masses are irrelevant to cover up the performance gap.

One; is why PDM ousted PTI’s government once the 12 parties’ alliance had no viable plan to fix the complex issues. Two; how PTI can justify its fluctuating stance on resigning from National Assembly.

Three; it is a fact that PTI’s extra-parliamentary populist campaign enabled the PDM to hasty unopposed legislation on sensitive issues related to NAB and the judiciary.

Four; denial of political dialogue, abrupt resigns from National Assembly, inconclusive long marches and dissolution of two provincial assemblies by the single largest party enormously dented the national stability and sent a negative message to the international community.

Five; the dissolution of Punjab and KP assemblies was a step beyond common sense which withered the political options for PTI and widely damaged the internal stability of Pakistan.

Six; the fragile economy was further squeezed due to political chaos triggered by PTI Chairman’s repeated default predictions. This unwise rhetorical verbosity discouraged the FDIs and generated a disappointing image of the unstable Pakistani market.

Seven; PTI leadership left no stone unturned in making a mockery of the legal system. Judiciary & LEAs were publicly ridiculed. Sentimental workers were motivated to violently resist the legal process of investigation and arrests. This frenzied approach eventually ended up with the undesired May 9 arson which radiated negatively on international forums about the internal disorder of Pakistan.

Eight; Tendency of scapegoating the establishment for self-generated blunders gradually kept fueling the hatred in the minds of emotional supporters. Social media platforms were extensively misused to brainwash the youth into an imaginary revolution.

Ninth; while blaming the establishment for overstepping in the political domain of the elected government, PTI Chairman felt no trouble in justifying his unconstitutional demands from the military leadership.

Tenth; major political stakeholders are selective in following the constitutional order about matters related to the judiciary, establishment and transparent elections. Another worrying aspect is the persistent inability and disinterest of political groups towards policy formulation to resolve long-standing issues like structural economic reforms.

Reluctant commitment to the constitution and exploitative populist manoeuvring on important issues by political leadership played a key role in destabilizing Pakistan. Trading short-term political victories at the cost of national stability is a permanent stigma on the integrity of political leaders who often package themselves as the sole saviour of the nation. Deep-rooted issues cannot be resolved with populist activism floated through shadowy keyboard warriors. It is about time for political leadership to mend their ways. The nation is paying the price of political leadership’s incompetence and immaturity. They were chosen to represent the voters in the parliament but they violated the mandate by drifting from parliament to agitation on roads. While the nation is looking for some remedial manoeuvres from their elected leaders, PMLN has just finished the family enterprise-style party elections and leftover PTI leadership is roaming in courtrooms to seek relief. Pity on the deceitful politics and equally crook leadership.

The writer is a freelance and can be reached at sikandarnoorani@yahoo.com.