The show is over

Dharnas ending with a whimper

Finally, the Qadri show in Islamabad is over amidst suggestions of an underhand deal with the government. This will leave Imran Khan high and dry with pressure mounting on him from workers to call off his sit-in too. The positive side of the affair is that the tension and uncertainty prevailing in the country would be considerably reduced.

What began as a bang has ended with a whimper. For over two months one saw a grand display of histrionics at the venue of PAT’s sit-in. Qadri issued ultimatums with short deadlines and threatened of dire consequences if his demands were not accepted forthwith. “I give 48-hour ultimatum to the government. Dissolve assemblies, register FIR and hand yourself over to the law. I will not be responsible for what happens after that.” Another day he was seen with a burial shroud declaring that he had taken the last bath of his life with the intention of martyrdom “for the rights of the oppressed and downtrodden people”. He put up impossible demands like the immediate resignation of an elected PM and his subsequent arrest and the dissolution of the national and provincial assemblies. While he kept his gullible followers spell-bound, none of his demands were accepted. It is ironic that while he ranted about participatory democracy, he did not care to consult hundreds of men and women who had faced hardships and suffered economic losses before announcing the end of the sit-in. That many left the venue in tears rather than making a V sign underlined the hollowness of his claim to have achieved a victory.

The leaders who planned the march on Islamabad hoped that the army would intervene in their support. This turned out be a miscalculation as Ch Shujaat Hussain has admitted. The country had to bear the cost of their misadventure in the form of political uncertainty, economic losses and bad international image. Politicians like Imran Khan need to learn a lesson from this. It is time the PTI legislators withdrew resignations and played the role of a responsible opposition