The gears have switched after the All Parties Conference in Islamabad a few weeks ago. Talk is cheap but action speaks for itself. After the PML-N, PPP, JUI-F and sundry opposition parties met for a conclave against the failures of the present government, high ranking partisans of the opposition, especially the PML-N, have demonstrated a commitment to taking a stand against Imran Khan’s government. PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif, acquiesced to go to jail, effectively ending his role as a bridge between the establishment and the PML-N. This also ends his moderating role within the party as a voice against confrontation. With Shahbaz Sharif in jail, Nawaz Sharif doubled down on his rhetoric and blamed the Pakistan Army, or what he called the state above the state, for rigging the 2018 elections to place Imran Khan as the premier of Pakistan. The state parried back by outing Muhammad Zubair Umar’s meeting with the army leadership while a mysterious FIR for sedition was filed against Nawaz Sharif and senior PML-N leaders. The sedition cases are denied by the government, but the allegations from the opposition that these cases are state sponsored will not stop. Muhammad Zubair presented himself to the police, to turn himself in for the sedition cases but his arrest was rejected by the police who did not wish to create further embarrassment.
While the PML-N’s people are systematically raising their hackles, the government’s functionaries are doubling down and delivering threats to the opposition. The government continues to display no clear focus on governance, whilst the opposition has to present a vision of a future that works for all Pakistanis.
Unfortunately, we need quick changes because the situation Pakistanis find themselves in under this regime is nothing short of an unfolding disaster. If there is an option in which this barely responsive, nearly disastrous regime can be chucked out, or at least the public’s opinion on it can be accurately gauged it should be taken. The GDP has declined since the 2018 election, from an all-time high at $314.57 billion in 2018 to under $280 billion this year, and we are nowhere near recovering ground.
The All Parties Conference didn’t change the facts on the ground but it has put a spring in the step of people who care about politics. With Nawaz Sharif’s speech against rigging in the 2018 election, against the establishment’s interference in politics, the announcement of an opposition alliance under the Pakistan Democracy Movement (PDM), a list of demands and a schedule of opposition protests for the rest of the year, the APC has given Pakistan something that the PTI’s hybrid regime has been failing to provide for a while: direction and leadership.
The rhetoric of the APC was an indictment of the last two years of governance by the PTI.
The 26 points, list of resolutions from the APC also reads like a laundry list of all the horrible things that the media has been gagged from discussing, but must be addressed.
The APC called for Imran Khan’s resignation — if the opposition has the strength it claims to have (and which it can muster) then it should go straight to a demonstration of power, which is what could concentrate the government’s mind and, resign from all the assemblies, and impose a snap election on this disastrous regime. The election could be rigged like in 2018, but giving battle at a time and place of your choosing is probably better than waiting on the government’s own twisted schedule to play out. I don’t know if the PTI can return, but the opposition should call out all the state quarters that have been aiding the regime unfairly during an election campaign they would have imposed, and bring those who hide in the shadows under pressure as well.
The excitement for the PDM is not really palpable. It only fulfills a structural need for a formal and effective, loyal opposition to the government. Speaking about the PDM is like speaking about the support beam for a building; it is necessary, but not exciting.
After the initial euphoria of watching the coverage of the APC, and subsequently watching the immaturity of PTI supporters, that the party has inculcated in its supporters, be reduced to a stunned silence, in the following days one did not feel any excitement. The opposition does not inspire any great sense of joy or any sense of liberation. Instead it feels more like fulfilling a civic duty.
Meanwhile the serial threats by various federal ministers are indicative of panicked behavior by the government.
The rhetoric and behavior by the government seems delusional, because the PML-N and PPP have a voter base in Pakistan that cannot be permanently suppressed. Treating the opposition constantly like criminals is in violation of the concept of innocence until proven guilty. It is also politically and economically destabilizing (admittedly factors that this government might not care for) but can also lead to this government getting caught in a political downward spiral.
Considering how the PTI government is trashing democratic norms, if the opposition is serious in standing up to it and not grandstanding, then it should consider working up soon to fresh elections. One manner is to bring enough members of the national assembly together to have a vote of no confidence. It should be executed only if support from enough members is guaranteed. The second, more complicated path would involve the opposition resigning from the National Assembly, along with enough concurrent members, to trigger a snap election.
There is a great deal of discontent in Pakistan; however to effectively mobilise it, the opposition needs to also present the public with a vision of a better future, beyond the declining present, and the chaotic past. That vision should have a renewed focus on a better material quality of life for the public in terms of easy access to housing, jobs, education, health, food, water, public safety and an economy that works for everyone. If material needs are not met, then the same tired tunes about corruption, will just keep stringing the public along.
While the PML-N’s people are systematically raising their hackles, the government’s functionaries are doubling down and delivering threats to the opposition. The government continues to display no clear focus on governance, whilst the opposition has to present a vision of a future that works for all Pakistanis.
Unfortunately, we need quick changes because the situation Pakistanis find themselves in under this regime is nothing short of an unfolding disaster. If there is an option in which this barely responsive, nearly disastrous regime can be chucked out, or at least the public’s opinion on it can be accurately gauged it should be taken. The GDP has declined since the 2018 election, from an all-time high at $314.57 billion in 2018 to under $280 billion this year, and we are nowhere near recovering ground.
The All Parties Conference didn’t change the facts on the ground but it has put a spring in the step of people who care about politics. With Nawaz Sharif’s speech against rigging in the 2018 election, against the establishment’s interference in politics, the announcement of an opposition alliance under the Pakistan Democracy Movement (PDM), a list of demands and a schedule of opposition protests for the rest of the year, the APC has given Pakistan something that the PTI’s hybrid regime has been failing to provide for a while: direction and leadership.
The rhetoric of the APC was an indictment of the last two years of governance by the PTI.
The 26 points, list of resolutions from the APC also reads like a laundry list of all the horrible things that the media has been gagged from discussing, but must be addressed.
The APC called for Imran Khan’s resignation — if the opposition has the strength it claims to have (and which it can muster) then it should go straight to a demonstration of power, which is what could concentrate the government’s mind and, resign from all the assemblies, and impose a snap election on this disastrous regime. The election could be rigged like in 2018, but giving battle at a time and place of your choosing is probably better than waiting on the government’s own twisted schedule to play out. I don’t know if the PTI can return, but the opposition should call out all the state quarters that have been aiding the regime unfairly during an election campaign they would have imposed, and bring those who hide in the shadows under pressure as well.
The excitement for the PDM is not really palpable. It only fulfills a structural need for a formal and effective, loyal opposition to the government. Speaking about the PDM is like speaking about the support beam for a building; it is necessary, but not exciting.
After the initial euphoria of watching the coverage of the APC, and subsequently watching the immaturity of PTI supporters, that the party has inculcated in its supporters, be reduced to a stunned silence, in the following days one did not feel any excitement. The opposition does not inspire any great sense of joy or any sense of liberation. Instead it feels more like fulfilling a civic duty.
Meanwhile the serial threats by various federal ministers are indicative of panicked behavior by the government.
The rhetoric and behavior by the government seems delusional, because the PML-N and PPP have a voter base in Pakistan that cannot be permanently suppressed. Treating the opposition constantly like criminals is in violation of the concept of innocence until proven guilty. It is also politically and economically destabilizing (admittedly factors that this government might not care for) but can also lead to this government getting caught in a political downward spiral.
Considering how the PTI government is trashing democratic norms, if the opposition is serious in standing up to it and not grandstanding, then it should consider working up soon to fresh elections. One manner is to bring enough members of the national assembly together to have a vote of no confidence. It should be executed only if support from enough members is guaranteed. The second, more complicated path would involve the opposition resigning from the National Assembly, along with enough concurrent members, to trigger a snap election.
There is a great deal of discontent in Pakistan; however to effectively mobilise it, the opposition needs to also present the public with a vision of a better future, beyond the declining present, and the chaotic past. That vision should have a renewed focus on a better material quality of life for the public in terms of easy access to housing, jobs, education, health, food, water, public safety and an economy that works for everyone. If material needs are not met, then the same tired tunes about corruption, will just keep stringing the public along.