The prime minister has said once again that he would continue to highlight “graft” by opposition leaders no matter what kind of pressure they try to exert on him to get what he repeatedly calls an NRO. After a meeting with his spokespersons, during which he was briefed about all the amendments that the opposition had proposed to the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO), he appeared more determined than ever to expose what the Pakistani Democratic Movement (PDM) really wants, which he is convinced is nothing more than a get-out-of-jail-free card for its leaders, so to speak. All that is very nice and the government is well within its rights to take its message to the public. Indeed it should name and shame anybody and everybody who has harmed the country and is still out to gain personal benefit by exploiting the state and the people; but only if the government is in possession of incontrovertible proof to back its accusations. So far not everybody, not even among PTI followers, is too impressed by the way the accountability drive is being pursued. Once the headlines, arrests and incarcerations subside, and the time for presenting the evidence and announcing verdicts should come, things instead tend to move sideways rather than in a particular direction and that is pretty much when the focus shifts to a similar cycle involving other opposition politicians. The prime minister should not need reminding almost half-way into the electoral cycle that the proof of the pudding lies in the eating. In the last two-and-a-half years accountability authorities have made a number of arrests and issued many bold statements, but the kind of repatriation of stolen funds back to the state kitty that PTI leaders promised so often on the campaign trail is still nowhere on the horizon. As for the said ordinance that has become so controversial, even if the opposition is asking for too much it is clear that some sort of changes will still be needed. The government must show results or it will be the one unable to answer awkward questions, not the opposition whose senior members have spent months and years under the microscope, when it is time to go to the people for their votes once again. *