Daily Times

The overbearing announcements of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) to resign from the assemblies seem to wither on the vine. Bypassing the Senate elections, now they, getting rap on the knuckles, have toned down the long march of March26. At present, resignations and the Senate elections are safely out of their loud bombast. Rather they seem to take part in the elections to have their share of cake. They have also put resignations on the backburner, as if they would like to take a rain check.

Earlier, PDM announced resignations en masse till January 31, but now they are hankering for some excuse to have some seats in the Senate by bargaining or using money. The incumbent government wants to conduct elections through open balloting. In the past, the opposition parties had the same demand, but now when the government has announced the same, they are beating retreat. It shows that the opposition has no mind to change their ways and means, otherwise the passing of legal amendment form the assembly and the Senate was not a problem.

These birds of a different feather had assembled under a banner, but they have their own axes to grind. Each of them is trying to use the other’s shoulder to fire their gun, so that they should escape the guilt while giving the impression of protesting against the government.

The main thing is that the opposition has no cause to speak or do against the government. Federal Minister, Fawad Chaudhary has rightly said that the opposition’s balloon is deflated. But I think that the balloon has had no air since the beginning. Some water seeped in it to swell it but now it is evaporating with the heat of hard facts.

PML N wants to mess up the entire game while PPP wants to divert attention of the people from the rampant corruption in Sindh by pretending to protest. And it got some success in this regard, much to its relief.

Maulana Fazalur Rehman himself is not a part of the assembly. He openly calls it a bogus and rigged assembly. On the other hand, his son and his party members are not only in the assembly but also enjoying its perks and privileges. They pocket TADA during assembly sessions and other allowances. Point to ponder is that if a thing is wrong for the father, how it can be lawful for the son. One may need to ask the religious leaders for proper guidance. Not only that, they are also taking part in the Senate election through the platform of these assemblies. It means they, if they are believed, are honoring a fake assembly by voting through it to elect a sham member.

The confusion spread by the opposition baffles a common man. He may be lauding their wily ventures. N League is yet to recover from the shock of losing Federal and Punjab governments. Earlier N League tried to disdain the patriotic circles, pretending that now no wild horse can drag them but when they saw that people had turned against them and Lahore jalsa was also an embarrassing failure, they started backchannels efforts to have some relief by cutting a deal.

I have often mentioned in these columns that the politics of resignations and long marches echo loudly in Pakistan. Tall claims are made but they are seldom put to act. Imran Khan conducted a 126 day long sit-in but it failed to topple the Nawaz Sharif Government. Then now an eleven party alliance, PDM, under the banners of as many leaders, striking discordant notes, can hardly expect any success against a stable government which is defeating PDM in every field.

Anyhow, PDM has announced a long march towards Islamabad on March 26. This announcement has made the patriotic circles to think seriously about PDM politics. It is because March 26 is the day when the Bangladesh Government celebrates the day of separation from Pakistan. It is their independence day which is certainly a painful blow to Pakistan when conspiracy of hostile forces and disloyalty of our own brothers won and East Pakistan parted their way from us. In a way, PDM, by opting out the same day, has tried to prove that they are political heirs of Sheikh Mujeemur Rehman. They have nothing to do with the politics and demeanors of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah.