What comes next?
The PTI’s Lahore rally for accountability was by no means a sea of people as billed earlier by the party leadership. It was however a fairly large gathering. Unlike the August 2014 march on Islamabad it was not a solo flight. The PPP and PML-Q – who agree with the PTI on the need to hold the prime minister accountable on Panama-gate had a symbolic representation in the rally. In his speech at the Charing Cross Imran Khan posed four questions centered around the business transactions of the PM’s scions in London. In case a satisfactory answer was not given, Khan warned that his party would march on the Raiwind estate after Eid. He accused the FBR chief of money laundering and the ECP of continuing to act as B team of the PML-N. Khan being a national leader one expected him to take highly serious charges of the sort to a court of law instead of hurling them from the public platform.
Tahirul Qadri’s speech at the Rawalpindi march was addressed to the army. He made frivolous accusations like Nawaz Sharif hatching conspiracy against the country’s sovereignty and the PML-N government being behind the terrorist attacks in Quetta, Peshawar and Mardan to divert attention from the opposition’s protests. As if he didn’t trust the courts, Qadri reminded Gen Raheel Sharif of his promise of securing justice for PAT workers who died in police firing in Lahore two years back.
The aim behind PTI’s rally was to highlight the corruption, misuse of institutions and high-handedness on the part of the PML-N government to weaken its hold over Punjab voters. A vigilant opposition would exploit any weakness shown by the government in the run up to the next elections due less than two years hence. With at least four major power generating projects getting delayed, a failure to end power shortfalls by 2018 could turn out to be PML-N’s Waterloo. Meanwhile one would wait to see if Panama-gate scandal still attracts masses as PTI holds its post-Eid rally outside the Raiwind Estate.
