Agitation no solution
The Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) plans to take to the streets from next week. It has a two-pronged agenda as it wants to mobilise the masses against the price hike, and inevitably galvanise momentum to oust the government. The grand opposition alliance will, however, not have the PPP — one of the two major opposition parties, along with the PML-N — on their side. The PPP has kept itself away from the divisive and confused narrative of the PDM, which primarily is under the influence of the PML-N.
PDM protests will commence with a public rally in Karachi on November 13, to move on to Quetta and Peshawar before kick-starting a march on the federal capital from Lahore sometime in December. To what extent the PDM manages to walk the talk is hard to guess, keeping in view its own track record of somersaults at the eleventh hour. But what is a foregone conclusion is that political heat will be quite evident, as masses too are irritated due to the price hike and unkept promises of the government.
The politics of agitation, nonetheless, is no solution. It will further unnerve the socio-economic mosaic, and plunge it into a new crisis. Though the present price hike is a global phenomenon, it has been compounded due to the government’s mismanagement on the micro-economic front. With no price control and regulation in supply and demand, the market’s middleman rules the roost. The opposition will be better advised to come up with a workable strategy to bring down the prices, and politically put the government in the dock.
The best forum to flex muscles is parliament, and not the streets. This will strengthen institutional governance and recreate a great impression of doer for the opposition. At the fag end of the government’s tenure, efforts to dislodge it through power politics would not be wise, besides being unconstitutional. Any change of guard at this moment is not advisable taking into account the fluid geo-strategic situation in the region. The opposition needs to reinvent a people-centric narrative and wait for next elections. The least it could do is to influence market forces, and bring down the skyrocketing price index.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 8th, 2021.
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