It’s not just the centre that’s gripped by controversy. There’s a deep crisis unfolding in Punjab as well where the assembly speaker, also PTI’s candidate for the CM slot, has clearly tried to punch above his weight and enforce a technical martial law in the House. It’s quite shameful how Ch Pervaiz Elahi is practically bending over backwards to subvert the system just because he does not have the numbers to support his cause. First, he closed the press gallery, then his party staged a scuffle during the assembly session to justify an indefinite adjournment, then he pushed the date of the election even further because he still didn’t have the numbers. And in the meantime, he also had police block the assembly entrance, even have barbed wire put there just for good measure, and also initiated no-confidence proceedings against his own deputy speaker when he decided that enough was enough. He’s also had no qualms about employing old-fashioned intimidatory tactics like axing the province’s IG police as well as the chief secretary just because they refused to “sort out” PTI dissidents. Now this matter is with the honoruable court as well. And since practically everybody can see the writing on the wall, it almost beggars belief that PTI and associates are willing to court so much controversy just to cling on to power even though they have no legal, moral, or even political, ground to stand on anymore. Now the question on everybody’s mind is, what next? It’s bad enough that the largest assembly of the country is paralysed; there is no leader in the house, and no legislation just because one man is throwing a fit because he’s unable to get the majority that he so desperately needs right now. The country’s politics has degenerated to the point that courts have to point out the right way forward. But it’s also very unfortunate that PTI and some of its allies have shown a rare and damaging propensity to not just ignore but also ridicule the pronouncements of the judiciary. We are in uncharted and very rough waters. If even the court’s orders are interfered with, there’s only anarchy to look forward to. What happens in Punjab, as much as in the centre, will decide which way the pendulum will swing. And it’s not long before we will have the answer. *