Daily Times

By Nazia Jabeen

Panama that was unknown to all of us has become hot topic of discussion on electronic, print and social media. The sole reason is not that it explored many rich people residing in this land of poor where thirty nine percent of population is living under poverty line. Panama did not gain popularity because the names of family members of PM were found in Panama papers. It got fame because it provided a base to opposition parties to go berserk. They left no stone unturned to exploit PANAMA issue in their favour. It started a series of blame game outside Supreme Court. Opposition parties trialled ruling party on daily basis and in response government had to give its stance. In a way, it provided another chance to opposition that was trying to force PM to step down on different issues ranging from election rigging to uproar of Panama. Politics of dharna and agitation could not succeed because it lacks any agenda of reforms and the political will of PTI. The Hamartia of opposition parties was that they could not be united to defeat the ruling party though they indulged themselves passionately in it. How could they have been triumphant since they did not carry any national agenda. They have a lot of points of divergence but hardly any converging point. The positive point that went always in favour of PML-N was that PML-N was the most popular party of Pakistan. Any feeble or weak blow can’t do any harm to it. Certainly PML-N has also been doing a lot that could be presented physically to show their performance. Amid war against terrorism, infrastructure development and mega projects of foreign investment have been the hall mark of this party. PPP in Sindh has nothing to display as a distinctive achievement. PTI has always staged a play with the characters of Pozzo and Lucky. All followers are Luckies and their leader is master Pozzo. Luckies could do nothing more than dancing to the tune of their master.

After Panama judgement, master seems confident and determined but the only thing cannot make him successful is that he has opened another front of opposition. PPP and PTI are once again at logger heads with each other. Their wish can be same but lack of trust hinders their any joint action. The ruling party is once again at receiving end because it’s not matter of simple blame game. The matter was in court and court did not find enough proofs of PM as guilty to be disqualified. As per legal matter and article 62 and 63, only Election Commission of Pakistan can disqualify PM on the reference of speaker. The court has given the verdict to form JIT for further investigation. PML-N is ready to cooperate with JIT to reach to a just decision but opposition is not ready to accept it. They are demanding once again the resignation of PM until final decision is announced. Here one thing is clear that opposition parties also agree that further investigations need to complete the process of reaching any conclusion. The only point of disagreement is that opposition wants Nawaz stepping down from the office of premier. Here once again one thing demands attention that is all opposition parties vowed to abide by the decision of Court and now when court has ordered the formation of JIT, they should comply and calmly wait and see. The only help they can do is to support JIT in its proceedings .The activation of street politics is quite unwise.

The opening of the fire of blame game disrespecting Court decision would not result in any positive outcome. Pressurising national institutions is not acceptable either as it can lead to social disruption. None of us knows the end result of JIT report but speculations and anti democratic slogans can also create negative impact on election campaigns of opposition parties. As far as the history of four years politics of agitation is concerned, it shows that discourse to anti government campaigns did not do anything substantial either to bring any change or to damage the image of ruling class. The loss is only of all Luckies who lack maturity and wisdom to do anything on their own. They have learnt to dance to the tune of their Pozzo master. Somehow, this time Pozzo can be disillusioned once again if the Luckies have learnt how to dress their wounds preventing infection.

The writer is a freelance contributor and can be reached at nazeea.jabeen@yahoo.com