The ruling party’s spokesperson should have counted to 10 before waving the red rag. For starters, terming a widely popular party like JUI-F as “extremist” particularly when the ruling PTI overwhelmingly lost its mandate in the home turf is definitely not a well-thought-of strategy. Sometimes, the devil lies in the context. No matter how ideologically similar the saffron-clad Maulana may be to the Taliban, timing holds paramount importance in politics. More importantly, the overdramatised losing of the ground had more to do with PTI’s own weaknesses than the leading light’s glory. As has already been acknowledged by the PM, his men simply paid the price for their mistakes. Going by the writing on the wall, wrong candidates should be looked upon as the first misstep. Since the premier claims to now take the baton for the management of lower rungs, it is necessary to not dole out key nominations to blue-eyed members and their kin. If his party has not learned the sour lesson even now, it would continue to tread along the nepotism road and the less said about its outcome in the upcoming polls, the better. That the people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have registered their grievances vis-a-vis inflation cannot be ignored. People have been disappointed with the utterly shambolic governance. Twisting the table from a two-third clean sweep to a disappointing second rank is no joke. This, coupled with the phenomenal rise of an adversary that was driven to the verge of political isolation spells a rather distressing set of affairs. Either show the vote bank that the tide is changing or better, change the tide to an even greater degree. Because nothing succeeds like success, it would be more helpful to strike at the root causes than caring for the optics. The chief minister office is up for a tight line of questioning because the fact that he let the golden goose out of his hands wouldn’t sit well with the headquarters. Nevertheless, just an effective starting point would be to train the kitchen cabinet in how to master the art of facing loss with dignity. After all, what is politics, if not a popularity-driven seesaw? *