Before things get out of hand
The PTI’s proposed lockdown of Islamabad has caused concerns both inside and outside the country. A petition filed in Sindh High Court maintains that blocking access to Defence, Interior and Finance Ministries would harm the country. A new dimension was added to the issue when the Chinese envoy took the unusual step of calling on Imran Khan. Khan had to dispel the perception that his party’s ongoing accountability movement against the prime minister was somehow meant to sabotage the CPEC.
On Tuesday while speaking to the PMLN voters after being re-elected party chief, Nawaz Sharif lambasted the PTI for having wasted time on protests and sit-ins instead of delivering in KP where it is in power. He predicted that the PTI might not come to power if seen to be unreponsive during its present tenure. He accused Imran Khan of indulging in jugglery. Earlier on several occasions Khan too had taken resort to objectionable language about the PMLN chief
The two sides have taken extremist positions. The PTI says it will not allow the government to function after October 2. The government has challenged the PTI to go ahead maintaining that the Islamabad sit-in would be as fruitless as PTI’s earlier protests including the August 2014 march on Islamabad and the sit-in. Unless the two sides realise the dangers emanating from the standoff the common man would hold them both responsible for any possible set back to the system
There is a need on the part of responsible elements in the opposition to mediate between the two. The opposition had agreed with the government to include in the ToRs investigation of all cases of bank loans written off, money stashed abroad etc provided a beginning is made with the Panama leak related case. A standoff can still be avoided through a display of flexibility on both sides. The tendency to delay things needs to be arrested because they can sometime get out of hand .