Last resort, please
Hopefully sane counsel, and not just bad weather, was behind Imran Khan’s new decision to first exhaust legal options and only then resort to another streetdharna against the government. Meanwhile PPP is piling up pressure of its own, promising to file its own reference for the PM’s disqualification with the ECP today. It seems that the opposition tried to milk the ToR debate for what it was worth, and the government kept dodging the main issue – of the PM’s inclusion – right till the opposition was exhausted and frustrated. And now the next phase of this drama will begin soon.
The opposition has two ways to proceed before it is forced onto the streets once again. One, of course, is the parliament; something PTI, at least, has not given priority to in the past. But leveraging parliament is all the more important for PTI this time. They accuse the PM, some would say rightly, of behaving like a monarch. It would be prudent, therefore, that PTI answers in text-book democratic fashion – by resorting to the House. Putting street agitation ahead of democratic institutions, like last time, is never a good idea and Imran, finally, seems to have realised this much.
Then there is also the legal option. If the Commission disappoints and behaves, as Imran has repeatedly said, like Nawaz Sharif’s Commission, then the combined opposition must knock at the Supreme Court’s door. And only if the legislature and judiciary keep up with the government’s stalling should PTI and PPP really take to street agitation with force. For the moment, though, they must realise that the government’s bad showing over the ToRs has actually given the opposition the initiative. The prime minister, unfortunately, has not kept his word about opening himself up for accountability. And the back-and-forth during the ToRs didn’t impress anybody. The best advice anybody can give the opposition at the moment, therefore, is to just add to the pressure – through legal means – and wait for PML-N to fall on itself.
