Daily Times

The road to settling who will be Punjab’s chief minister has been long and hard, and it would do nobody any good to dispute the supreme court’s final ruling on it any further. The PML-N and its allies have now effectively lost a lengthy legal battle and will only isolate themselves from proceedings further by taking up arms against the superior judiciary. A much better course would be to go back to the drawing board and chalk out a plan for the future; especially their strategy as pressure from the PTI, to call a snap general election, will now threaten to snowball.

The PTI will, no doubt, be buoyed by Tuesday’s ruling. Yet having come out on top in the bigger narrative, at least for the time being, it must also show greater responsibility and not take measures that might suit it politically but could also imperil the system. No doubt, a general election is needed to bring stability and direction to governance, but is plunging into one right now in the best interest of the country; especially the people, who are paying through their noses to revive the IMF bailout program, which was only disrupted because the politicians could not see beyond their narrow self-interests?

For, there is a very good chance that a caretaker government would not have the appetite, or even the mandate, to take the measures required to keep the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) on track. And without it, there is no chance of the country acquiring the $40-plus billion needed for debt repayment this fiscal year. So, now that the law has spoken, it would be best if the country’s political elite forgot their differences for a while and joined heads to save the economy from complete collapse. Once they have displayed enough political wisdom to avert the impending catastrophe, they can have their election to see whom the people anoint on the big seat. *