And now, some unsolicited advice for the Punjab chief minister: if it aint broke, dont fix it. The Raymond Davis issue had all but fizzled out. In fact, after the great sensory experience that an India-Pakistan match is, the public will have to strain its memory slightly to remember the incident. But Mr Shahbaz Sharif still thought it best to claim, un-prodded, that he was in no way involved in the deal that had resulted in the CIA contractors release.
Well, if you mess with a bull, you only get the horns. A PPP opposition, they say, is far more dangerous than a PPP government. The Punjab government is only just beginning to find that out. When a tongue-in-cheek suggestion by an opposition MPA to change the name of Raiwind to Raymond was met with spirited response by the treasury benches, the opposition members actually shouted the lot of them down. Because they could; for a centre-right ultra nationalist party, any bit of complicity in the whole affair is a raw nerve. The PPP members were only hitting where it hurts the most.
They shouldnt, though. There was no doubt that the government of Pakistan was between a rock and a hard place during the whole episode. It had worked up into a diplomatic crisis of sorts. Now that it is all behind us, perhaps the different parties can just let it go. Not going to happen, the PPPs Punjab presence would think. If the PML(N) doesnt shy away from using cheap populism and pressure-cooker nationalism at instances that are above politics, so will they. The Raymond Davis issue, however, is a double-edged sword. The federal government cannot remain unscathed if the Punjab government is hit on the front. It is about time the issue is put to bed. Even the religious right, ever desperate to whip up a frenzy, has been unable to bring out the crowds. The political parties should stop trying to get mileage out of an issue that could have had disastrous consequences for the country.
