Daily Times

In the age of verbal excesses, the type of political disagreements in Pakistan have phenomenally changed. The debate no longer centres around beliefs. It has now become a clash of titans where personalities are the target and every party is carrying sharpened daggers on its sleeves. This toxic “bitterness” was touched upon by the information minister when he chose Twitter to raise a new banner: let bygones be bygones. Extending the proverbial hand of friendship to the opposition is not an oft-treaded-upon path, especially for a spokesperson who has gained notoriety for not holding any punches. Credit should be given where due and poking holes in his extraordinary approach would only feed into the vicious system wherein every step put forward is dragged two blocks behind.

It is high time that sanity prevails in the power corridors for the electorate as well as the executive must have gotten tired of the damning polarisation. The discourse of personal enmity has struck at the very core of our politics; spreading poison left, right and centre. The last year, in particular, witnessed innumerable examples of ordinary arguments cascading into a terrifying takedown. As if the usual Modi ka Yaars jibes did not satiate the rhetorical peddlers enough, parliamentary debates were a showdown of who would cast a more lethal blow. Amid calling Zulfikar Ali Bhutto a traitor and targeting members of the first family sitting thousands of kilometres away, the lethal rumpus would lead to a far worse second act. Election campaigns are no longer an opportunity to put forward an ambitious agenda after the ascent to power but a paved ground to malign enemies–who should not be adversaries but those engaged in a healthy race. Ergo, Mr Chaudhry’s change of heart and an open invitation for course correction should be followed by all political parties. An utter disregard for all conventions and deleterious consequences of knee-jerk vilifications has dragged on for too long. Unless the focus is brought back on the politics of ideologies from the ongoing personalities war, we would never surface above the who-is-a-patriot quagmire. An obvious first step in this regard should be to seal the lips of an ever-so-eager brigade of mouthpieces in every party, whose sole job description is to throw barbs around. Let’s replace the ugly war of words with far-reaching cooperation. Why continue to put our country, our democracy at stake? *