Is he being a little too confident, the prime minister, when he says no force can unseat democracy? After all, isn’t he the captain of an unsteady boat in some rather turbulent seas? Isn’t he heading a government replete with charges of corruption and incompetence? Be that as it may, however, recent history has proved that he just may have reason to be sure of his position. Lest candid posterity forget, talk of his government being overthrown has been doing the rounds almost since it started its term in office. That too despite this government having a shorter honeymoon period compared to others owing to the fallout with the PML(N) over the issue of the restoration of the then deposed senior judiciary.
The now widely acknowledged agility with which the president has navigated his party has ensured that his government has gotten more powerful, if not necessarily more popular, in the scheme of things. Were the media, and within it, the commentariat, subject to any of the accountability that the corporate sector, the bureaucracy or governments themselves are subject to, many hacks would have lost their jobs for getting it wrong over and over again. In the republic, however, the fat cats, as opposed to the feet-on-the-ground reporters, keep getting fatter.
The premier’s statements were, of course, in connection with the recent successful anti-government rallies by the PML(N) and Imran Khan’s PTI. Since the latter was more of a show of force against the former, he wasn’t as bothered as a man whose government was the brunt of two major rallies would presumably be. The business of political demographics and psephology is dicey, granted, in Pakistan but the number crunchers and analysts all seem to be suggesting that any possible PTI gains in the future will be at the PML(N)’s expense. To further cement a walling in of the League, the PPP is finally engaging in a policy that many party watchers say was long overdue: establish separate secretariats for north and south Punjab.
Interesting times, these. The heating up of the political arena is bound to lead to a more forceful wooing of the electorate. This is bound to yield better attempts, by all parties, to engage the disenfranchised. That all can’t be a bad thing.
