Finally big brother Sharif has his way and little brother throws PML-N’s weight behind JUI-F’s dharna on Oct31. So PTI can now play on the “splintered opposition” all it wants, while at the same time offering talks to Maulana Fazlur Rahman, but it will have to deal with the full force of the combined opposition when the “Azadi march” descends on the capital in a few days. Suddenly it is Imran Khan’s party that is “illegally appointed” and “incompetent”. How distant PTI’s own dharna from about half-a-decade ago looks now, when Imran couldn’t tolerate Nawaz Sharif’s government because he accused it of rigging the election, stealing people’s mandate, etc. Then Imran left Lahore promising not to return without Nawaz’s head, as Fazl does now about Imran’s own administration. Most political pundits seem convinced that the dharna will give Imran a very “tough time”, even though everybody including popular media has claimed that the prime minister has had the side that matters on his side since well before the election. Doesn’t that imply, however, that the so called “third umpire”, made famous in the last dharna, is going to continue batting for PTI and keep the government’s wicket from falling to protect its own position in the match? When Imran looked so confident leaving for his dharna in 2014 everybody said it was because of the powerful backing he so clearly enjoyed. How, then, do they explain the maulana’s, and other parties’, confidence this time? Is there more to this, too, than meets the eye? Say you will about the opposition’s motives, but you can’t really fault a part of their argument. There is no denying that the government has failed to live up to many of its own campaign promises, to put it very mildly. And quality of life, especially in the middle and lower income groups, has not been this bad for quite a while. That is why the anti-government drive has found such traction among the people. If the opposition can now really drive in the point that the worst economic/financial situation in decades indeed owes to the incompetence of the ruling party, it could well build significant non-political momentum to back its call for an early election. Yet there was plenty of backing for Imran’s call as well. Newsrooms, talk-show sets, even spies-turned-analysts were convinced that “Go Nawaz GO” had indeed brought the government to his knees; counting days till the PM would be forced from office. But then nobody could explain why the protest suddenly ran out of steam, especially if it allegedly enjoyed concrete establishment backing. What was pretty clear, though, was that it eventually made the common man’s life even worse. The lockdown put pressure on growth, jobs, prices, etc, something that the economy can clearly do without at this point. If this show of force also makes a lot of noise only to peter out, harming the economy more than the government, how smart will people supporting it now, and opposition parties claiming to represent them, look then? Perhaps they will stop volunteering to be cannon fodder for angry, frustrated politicians who want nothing less than the privilege of power. *