Another bad habit
PTI, of course, likes to market the more positive aspects of this phenomenon. Whenever the system does not respond, people take a leaf out of the party’s own book – stage dharnas at the chairman’s gate – and kaptan snaps his fingers and pieces are quickly seen moving across the board. But it’s not easy to maintain the positive spin when too many grieved parties set up camp at Banigala. For example, employees of Workers Welfare Board Schools protesting on Sunday, joined by the province’s polio workers. This means naya KP is pretty much like the old KP where the working machinery remains broken down and there’s nothing like a call from the top if you need things done.
PTI would not accept it, but perhaps things would have been different if the party had committed itself to pressing the reset button in KP. Instead, they took their eye off the ball almost as soon as the match started, concentrating their energies on picking fights with other parties. First it was more important for them to shut down the capital and force the government out of power instead of turning KP into the model province they promised on the campaign trail. And a number of notorious fights later, they are up to the same provocative rhetoric in Karachi for the by-election. It seems the party is now aiming at returning the port city to its old splendor; promising to once again make it the city of lights.
That there is no such progress in KP is, of course, an entirely other matter. From jail breaks to random terror to high profile TTP hits, it’s always either the federal government, or the interior ministry, or simply someone else to blame. While there can be no denying that the party has played no small role in educating and mobilising people politically, it must also be noted that so far its politics has revolved around confrontation. It would help PTI as well as the people of KP if it revised its working strategy. Rather than try and bring down other parties, why not set an impeccable record of governance in your own domain so more people vote for you next time, and the road to power is realised in an amicable manner?
