N league bent upon learning nothing
What purpose did the arrests of the last few days serve really? Unless the intent was to anger PTI and PAT further – which would, of course, have meant a desire to break off negotiations – there is little to read from the government’s latest tactic. Naturally both parties were outraged, and the talks are now off. So much for the opposition jirga that facilitated the negotiations for so long. And now, as the PTI is saying confidently, the minutes of the many rounds of discussions should be out in the open soon, and then the press and the people will have a go at whoever was responsible for ensuring a deadlock remained.
Should it be proved, as the dharnas have claimed for some days now, that the N league was deliberately trying to sabotage the talks, the PM will have yet more egg on his face. It seems that the “five and a half points” that the government side talks of accommodating is not really true. They do agree to some of the stiffer demands verbally, but invariably change their position when written documents are exchanged, according to PTI officials. If this claim, which the government denies every day, is also proved, it would amount to the ruling party returning some of the momentum to the dharnas.
Considering the outcome of some of the government’s actions, Nawaz Sharif must consult with other people if he has been taking decisions unilaterally so far, and change his close aides if his inner circle was behind some of the decisions of the past couple of months. Otherwise he will keep embarrassing himself. He didn’t look good when his interior minister boasted the arrests were for vandalism, but then it turned out it was just a random intimidation tactic, and even the courts took notice. Now they’ve had to free not only PTI and PAT workers, but also people who had nothing to do with the protests but were caught in the crackdown. It seems the government refuses to learn any lessons from its own mistakes.
This is really not the first time Nawaz has affected this emperor style of governance – He is been doing this over and over again and perhaps initially he had establishment at his rescue but not any more. He no longer holds the carte blanche to intimidate the protesters with his so called nauseated hit and run tactics. Now if the trend continues sooner rather later will be the end of NAWAZ.
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