The political class is once again circling the same drain. PMLN Senator Rana Sanaullah’s recent invitation for inter-party talks is not new. Earlier in August, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had floated an unconditional Misaq-i-Istehkam-i-Pakistan meant to bring all parties to a common table. The proposal has hung in the air since then because the PTI’s leadership refuses to step onto the platform. Instead of recalibrating, the party has doubled down on boycott politics, as seen again in the Punjab by-polls, where it skipped all constituencies except Lahore and Haripur.
For its part, the PTI has entrenched itself in an unyielding narrative: no negotiations, no compromises, no shared forums. This may cheer its loyalists, but it confuses rigidity with strategy. Political capital is not inexhaustible. It is bound to depreciate when public anxiety rises. Inflation is burning through household budgets, energy shortages persist, and even the IMF has warned that prolonged uncertainty will dampen investment.
Yet the government cannot plead innocence either. Its reluctance to notify Mehmood Achakzai as Leader of the Opposition has chipped away at its own credibility. Meanwhile, in Punjab, overzealous policing has irritated critics and even partners who expected a lighter hand.
What makes this impasse particularly self-defeating is the contrast between our rhetoric abroad and its practice at home. At a recent forum, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar spoke about the virtues of leadership and dialogue in confronting global challenges. The point is fair. But if Pakistan champions conversation abroad, why does the instinct vanish at home? Our political history is littered with moments when refusal to talk led to squandered opportunities and deepened social fractures. Today’s mix of rising costs, weak revenues, and a sharpening security strain–from fresh militant activity to jittery borders–needs lawmakers who can sit in the same room without turning it into a battlefield.
There is still time to pull back. The government can signal good faith by allowing peaceful protest without turning every rally into a security event. PTI, in turn, has to move past the theatrics of refusal. A functioning democracy cannot wait indefinitely for a party that keeps one foot outside the system. Its leadership must decide whether it wants to contest power or merely contest the process. After all, the government (whatever its flaws) is at least trying to create space for a conversation.
Both sides understand this: no one is walking away with a sweep, and no one can govern alone for long. The federation is not a one-man island. The alternative to dialogue is yet another round of paralysis and recrimination; an old cycle the public keeps paying for.
Politics does not require heroes. It requires adults who can manage a conversation without burning the table. The meeting between New York’s mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and US President Trump at the White House showed how political rivals, however far apart, can still sit down and extract something useful for the greater good. That would be a decent start. *