Same for dharnas
PTI’s obsession with dethroning the Sharifs is fast becoming the stuff of legend. Come what may – economic decline, diplomatic isolation, even threat of war – the party seems determined to dharna its way to its ‘naya’ Pakistan. But then the same, in ways, is true for PML-N and its obsession with saving democracy. Whenever the ruling party, especially the upper-most cadre, is in trouble, you’ll hear that democracy itself is under siege. And much of the political lot played along, especially till the time of the firstdharna; seeing how they too benefit from the same system now and again.
But the same knee-jerk reaction to allegations concerning the prime minister and his family, of financial corruption, was one time too many even for the ‘muk-muka’ faction of the opposition. That, and the fact that PML-N, even Nawaz Sharif personally, was not quite as warm once the dharnafizzled out and the joint session was a conveniently forgotten episode. So now nobody quite believes, except PML-N and Co of course, that the so-called Panama probe is, once again, an attack on democratic institutions. Yet it’s still not as simple as marching onto Raiwind, surrounding the palace, and ‘relieving’ the ‘system’ of Nawaz Sharif.
However much it is a person’s, or party’s, right to protest, the bigger picture must still be kept in mind. Choking Lahore, raising the political temperature, hurting the economy, paralysing the politics, etc, just when there are problems with Afghanistan, America might sanction us, and there is a serious threat of war with India might just be short of the smartest kind of politics. Yet in a situation where those in power can simply frustrate any inquiry into their financial misdealing, etc, what is the opposition, or the serious component of it at least, supposed to do? Until this question is resolved, we likely to be treated to Panama Papers and dharnas ad nauseam.
