Are calls for a change in government justified?
For the leaders who happen to be in power time passes too quickly; for those in the opposition it moves at snail’s pace. While the PML-N administration has just completed a year in office, the knives are out for the government. The PML-Q, PTI and PAT are keen to see Nawaz Sharif’s back. The prime minister thinks their desire to send the government home is unjust as the masses have given him a mandate to remain in power for five years. He wants his impatient detractors to wait for their turn. Ch Pervez Elahi who smells change in the air remains unconvinced. Qadri thinks a revolution leading to the overthrow of the system is already overdue. Imran Khan complains that he has knocked at every door, from the ECP and courts to the National Assembly, to get his grievances redressed and having failed to get the relief the only way left now is to march on Islamabad to overthrow the government.
Not long ago the parties in the opposition were showing similar impatience for the PPP which they called a security threat for the country. Some of PPP’s opponents suggested that there would be nothing left of Pakistan if the ruling party was allowed to complete its tenure. The PPP, they maintained, had lost the people’s confidence and must quit immediately. Foremost among those who demanded holding mid-term polls were Ch Nisar and Imran Khan. Nawaz Sharif has appealed to the political parties to stop attacking one another for the sake of democracy. But does he remember Shahbaz Sharif promising to drag ‘corrupt’ Zardari in the streets of Lahore?
Nawaz Sharif wants to be left in peace so that he can fulfill the promises he had made to the electorate. Had he concentrated on delivering instead of making promises, no politician would have been in a position to issue calls for million marches or for revolution. Sharif has to do whatever he can in the midst of calls for arms.
