It would have been fair to say that Bilawal Bhutto’s remarks about Nawaz Sharif’s allegations amounted to dropping a bombshell, as some ‘senior analysts’ seem to have already surmised on prime time TV, if his interview with the BBC had indeed split up the opposition PDM alliance. While there can be no denying that Bilawal did, in fact, take a fair bit of wind out of the alliance’s sails of which his party is also a very prominent part just when the protests were gaining undeniable momentum, it is still too early to jump to conclusions since the alliance doesn’t seem to have suffered too much damage so far, and all 11 parties remain committed to the 26 points originally agreed upon. Bilawal, too, was careful to balance his comments with a more mature line about how the three-time former prime minister must have known what he was talking about, and everybody is now waiting for him to present the evidence that he must have based his accusations on. The government, for its part, should be careful about not giving in to a sense of irrational exuberance by celebrating a sort of premature failure of the protests. It’s no secret of course that PPP and PML-N have a very bitter past and it would take a lot of flexibility for them to stay close friends, but it really doesn’t suit any party in the alliance to sabotage it at this stage. Still, it would have been better if representatives of the 11 parties had got together after Nawaz Sharif’s speech and agreed upon a unified response to pressing questions that were sure to come. Now, they are forced to do a measure of damage control to keep up appearances. If the government is really looking for something to rejoice then it must do the right thing and offer negotiations to the opposition. Nobody thinks that the government is any sort of danger of being sent packing, but everybody is concerned about the political and economic paralysis that this confrontation seems to be causing. That is why it was strange to see the prime minister himself ruling out talks so strongly last week. This, then, is fast transforming from a political standoff into a battle of giant egos. The leadership on either side won’t mind using all the resources at their disposal at all as long as they come out on top, even if the country and the people have to suffer for it. That is very unfortunate. *