Multan show

Our political history is littered with games that are played in the name of democracy and ‘interest’ of the nation

PDM’s anti-government movement shifted up a gear in Multan — ahead of the plan. The 11-party alliance had planned to stage a public rally inside a cricket stadium in the City of Saints on Monday, but thanks to the government crackdown on the opposition workers and supporters, it turned out to be a bigger show of power observed all over the city. Multan’s was the fifth of a total of six public gatherings in build-up to a ‘long march’ to the federal capital designed to topple the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan. While Lahore is to be the venue of the next political duel, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the PDM head, has announced nationwide protests on coming Friday and Sunday.

We are thus in the thick of a political battle — a battle that erupts periodically in our country. As if in a circular motion, we have come back to the same political pass we had crossed “triumphantly” only recently. There is a sense of déjà vu all over again. The game has resumed — after a break. Players on the two sides are the same, but their roles have reversed. Those on the attack then are to defend now — and vice versa. Both sides, however, claim to save democracy — one by marching against an “illegitimate and incompetent government” and the other by defending an “assault on the people’s mandate”.

Our political history is littered with such games — games that are played in the name of democracy and in the ‘interest’ of the nation. Political harmony is needed for the incumbents to focus on issues of core concern for the country and for the people like the economy, global diplomacy and security — both internal and external. But with the political scene dominated by protest demonstrations, rallies and sit-ins, the much-needed political calm has eluded the country during much of its existence. Even amid a surging pandemic, a bitter acrimony defines the relationship between the government and the opposition, though the onus to hand out an olive branch this time — even if only temporarily — lies with the latter.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 2^nd, 2020.

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