The politics of permenant confrontation
The joint session of Parliament was attended by all parliamentary parties with the exception of PTI. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif extended full support for the Kashmiris’ struggle for right of self-determination, condemned the inhuman oppression on those protesting peacefully for their rights and vowed to defy external pressure from any quarter in this regard. The Leader of the Opposition said the nation s stood together with the Prime Minister in his support for the Kashmir cause
It is highly regrettable that the Imran Khan declined to attend the joint session extending the untenable excuse that by attending the session he would be endorsing the Prime Minister’s legitimacy. Sharif draws legitimacy from the 2013 polls where the PML-N won the largest number of National Assembly seats and Sharif was elected Prime Minister by the House. It is ironical that only two days earlier a delegation of PTI’s central leaders had attended the parliamentary leaders meeting presided over by Nawaz Sharif. Earlier when Sharif had convened the APC in December 2014 to formulate the National Action Plan Khan was present in the meeting. By boycotting the joint session Imran Khan has isolated himself from the political mainstream.
The recourse to extra-parliamentary means like shutting down Islamabad would further isolate the PTI. Neither Jamaat-e-Islami which is PTI’s major coalition partner in KP nor PAT which was Khan’s close ally in August 2014 march on Islamabad are prepared to join him in the misadventure. Imran Khan is once again back to solo flight. The PTI chief’s preference to rely on a team of turncoats and the continuing delay in holding the intra-party elections have already disappointed a large section of his youthful supporters. Khan is now increasingly depending on “electables” who have gathered around him in the hope for getting party tickets. They fetch truck loads of audience as was seen during the Raiwind march. The politics of agitation, public protests and sit-ins is however not their cup of tea. Soon they too would be fed up with the politics of permanent confrontation and part ways.