Surely any government that does its job to the satisfaction of the people has little to worry about when it comes to threats from the opposition. Yet this government, though it denies it is feeling any heat at all from the 11-party opposition alliance, is committing actions that betray jittery nerves, to say the least. The prime minister’s “I am democracy” declaration backfired more than a little bit, but then instead of controlling the damage he had done he promptly went right back to the claim about being on the same page with the powerful establishment, as if he was rubbing it in just because everybody knew what that meant. And the less said about what he said about how the intelligence service keeps tabs on senior politicians, even prime ministers, the better because this particular nugget of wisdom will take a while before it is properly digested by the very establishment the prime minister claims backs him to the hilt. And only then will we see how much they liked the comment. Yet the way the government has gone about toggling the police force in Gujranwala, where the opposition’s October 16 rally is going to be held, shows just how unnerved it has become even before the show has properly taken off. According to news reports, which are pretty credible since nobody has yet bothered to deny them, the provincial government has shuffled around 200 police officers from here to there in the province ahead of the rally, and made sure that it has got the very best anti-PML-N officers posted in cities that matter; since they would be expected to do what they can to disrupt the opposition’s as far as possible. Perhaps the government would not have been too bothered if only it had a slightly better scorecard. But with the economy in a bad shape – inflation, unemployment and other normal hardships are all still on the rise – and the IMF program sill stalled since the Fund wants the electricity prices as well as taxes to be increased, it seems PTI is afraid of what ordinary people might make of the opposition’s accusations as it goes from rally to rally. That is why it is doing just what it always accused PML-N of doing when it was in power, that is using the state machinery to add a bit of muscle to its own case. Hopefully the ruling party will see the folly of the course it has chosen and adjust sooner rather than later. *