Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) leaders appeared confident as they announced their long march on to Islamabad, scheduled for March 26, but in fact the move betrayed a sense of fear of loss in the Senate elections. Because if they really were sure of a victory, as they have claimed so often over the past few weeks, then they would have put off the march and all discussion about it till after the poll, especially since PPP leader Bilawal Bhutto only recently seemed to have convinced JUI-F and PDM chief Maulana Fazlur Rahman to do exactly that since in case of Yousaf Raza Gilani’s victory it would be more prudent for the opposition to hunt for a no-confidence motion in the house against the prime minister. Yet all that seems to have unraveled now and the opposition alliance has, for all intents and purposes, telegraphed its own apprehensions ahead of time. The march is going to have very different dynamics than the path of the no-confidence motion, and it’s not yet clear how the opposition is going to go about it. So a number of questions will have to be answered pretty soon. One, do all parties intend to join the march or will some opt out? Two, do they intend to just march to Islamabad in the form of a large caravan and just wrap up and go home once they’ve made their point or do they have longer plans? Three, surely the former makes no sense so they would have to set up camp to protest. But isn’t PPP, one of the main pillars of the party, principally against what has come to be known in our culture as politics of dharna? And four, such things obviously run into a lot of money, so who is going to foot the bill? And for how long? It seems that as the Senate election drew near and it finally dawned on the opposition alliance that even their best efforts would fall short of securing a Senate seat for Yousaf Gilani, they panicked and pressed the long march button in haste; most likely to try and keep their momentum from dissipating more than anything else. But in doing so PDM has only admitted defeat in the Senate race even before the ballot, which is also an apt reflection on the political immaturity of some of their central leaders. Jumping into the march head first without thorough planning, too, will prove costly for it sooner rather than later. As things are evolving, PDM seems to be making a lot of noise but having trouble finding any sort of direction. *