Islamabad concerned about what happens next

LAHORE:

With Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is on a collision course with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)-led federal government, all eyes are on the powerful quarters to either diffuse the situation or help the government survive the opposition’s onslaught.

With an abrupt shift in the government strategy, from wait and see to thwarting and containing the PTI march on Islamabad, concerns in the federal capital about what happens next have grown, background discussions with several leaders of the ruling alliance revealed on Tuesday evening.

The hope, it seemed, is for the “neutrals” to neutralise the threat and help the government stay afloat during the incoming political storm that has appeared on the horizon and almost certain to descend on Islamabad on Wednesday (today).

PML-N leaders maintain that the PTI left them with no other option but to go for pre-emptive arrests and road blocks to maintain law and order in the country. The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) – a major ally of the government, has appeared to have adopted a somewhat ambivalent policy.

The PPP has neither endorsed the steps taken by the government nor condemned them. A PPP leader maintained that the party did not approve of such high-handedness and realised that these measures could prove counterproductive.

However, he backed the PML-N leaders’ viewpoint that the PTI had left the government with no other option but to take the steps it had taken. The PPP leader said that the government would survive this onslaught and the support needed for that was there.

Leaders from both the major political parties in the ruling alliance are of the view that the PTI should keep the doors of the dialogue open. As of now, they said, the PTI was not ready to engage with anyone but if it didn’t want to engage with the government it should engage with the stakeholders.

They further said that the government was ready to listen to them, but only on a condition that former prime minister Imran Khan would not take “U-turns”. They added giving in to the PTI’s demand would undermine the state’s authority and writ.

“The only way forward for Imran Khan is to engage in a dialogue, if not with the government, then with the stakeholders,” Federal Minister Javeed Latif told The Express Tribune. However, he evaded the question, when asked if by stakeholders he meant establishment.

Also read: Islamabad braces for PTI's long march as crackdown intensifies

The minister firmly said that the government would not give in to Imran Khan’s pressure at any cost, adding that the PTI chairman was inciting people to violence. “The state has to maintain the law and order, even if it comes at the cost of taking difficult decisions.”

The minister was optimistic that government would control the situation with ease. “The government will meet the two targets it has set before itself – election reforms and economic reforms,” Javeed Latif said. “Without meeting the two targets, elections will not be called.”

Senator Rana Maqbool said that Imran could not be allowed to “bulldoze everything” in the country. He added that Pakistan could not function according to his whims and wishes. Therefore, he added: “Engagement is the only way out, whom he [Imran] wants to engage with, is his wish.”

PPP Information Secretary Faisal Kareem Kundi said that the party did not approve of the arrests of political workers and road blocks but this situation was different. But the government with its back against the wall, he added, would have to keep control of the situation.

Kundi said that the government was aware of Imran Khan’s nefarious designs, which was the reason some precautionary measured were unavoidable. Even now, he said, the PPP was ready to engage with the PTI, if they want, to help diffuse the situation.

A PPP office bearer revealed that they had the assurance from the establishment that they would survive this onslaught. He said that power quarters would aid the government in quelling this movement.

He said that Imran Khan erratic behaviour was a threat to the country. “Imran Khan’s constant criticism of neutrals has brought their skin in the game, and now the government and the establishment are in the same boat,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.