Daily Times

Political forces appear to be heading towards the end of an exceptionally long election season, after all. While there’s no telling if and when the sea of controversies would subside, newly-elected members of the lower house managed to be sworn in on Thursday against deafening ruckus, intense sloganeering, weary delays and bizarre displays of loyalty.

The optics of PTI leaders walking down the steps under the umbrella of SIC and donning masks designed after their party founder carry the earmarks of an unprecedented resistance movement. However, as the other parties show signs of trudging towards the actual task of governance, they are yet to learn how to snap out of the campaigning mode.

It goes without saying that a lot of what they exclaimed in the maiden session could have been easily resolved had the ECP tried its hand at impartially seeing through the electoral process in a manner above reproach. Still, those elected to care about the million-and-one predicaments of the common man cannot spend the next five years detailing the charge sheet.

As legal avenues are explored to address any and all instances of where the public believes its mandate has been stolen, the parliament would have to focus its energies on the real agenda. In the coming days, the economy is bound to be the biggest test of its determination to steer the country through these choppy waters.

Between broadening the tax base, moving forward with the privatisation movement kickstarted by the caretaker government and clinging tightly to the IMF, there’s a lot that needs to be done, and that too, on an immediate basis. PMLN leader and former speaker Ayaz Sadiq hit the bull’s eye when he expressed hopes for “national reconciliation,” so that opposition and government work together as “wheels of the same car.” But before others take his advice seriously, can he convince his own party to let bygones be bygone? *