Daily Times

Just when it seemed, even if for the briefest moment, that the government was beginning to see the futility of a head-on confrontation with the opposition as the latter’s protests gather momentum and there might be a possibility of negotiations to diffuse the situation, the prime minister himself has ruled out such a possibility very strongly. He clearly called any such thing a “big mistake.” That is unfortunate, to say the least, because the people are now condemned to becoming bystanders yet again as political forces lock horns and consume all energies of the state. While it is true that protesting is among any opposition party’s basic democratic rights, it is equally if not more true that running the country properly is squarely the responsibility of the sitting government.

That is why whenever it looks as if opposition protests might grow to the point that the country’s functioning could become problematic, the government of the time tends to step in to talk things out and diffuse the situation. That is also what happened during PTI’s own 2014 dharna in Islamabad, although PML-N’s attempts to reach a negotiated solution weren’t exactly successful. But they did turn the attention of the press to a possible thaw. PTI is clearly of a very different mould. For however much the prime minister personally dislikes all opposition leaders, because he firmly believes they are very corrupt and all that, some of the adjectives he used for them just the other day were better left for another time.

Raising the stakes at this point in time hardly seems the wisest thing to do. And as for the PM personally going to Great Britain and talking to Prime Minister Boris Johnson to get Nawaz Sharif back, it is difficult to understand how that could be possible without a formal extradition treaty. Or maybe that is precisely what the Pakistani and UK governments have been discussing lately. Either way, the government does not seem to be doing itself any favours by fighting fire with fire. Already it is in trouble with the people because of high prices and the fact that everybody now believes the government is simply helpless to do anything about all the mafias and cartels it holds responsible for it. Surely this is one of those moments when discretion is the better part of valour. *