Eid amid chaos

Pleasantly surprising it was this time to have a timely announcement from Reut-e-Hilal Committee on when we are celebrating Eid. The unofficial Peshawar moon sighting committee — which has in previous years influenced official decisions — was not in the picture either. Thus the whole nation is celebrating Eid on the same day today. But while the nation is united in marking Eid, it is so deeply divided on political lines that festivities on the biggest Muslim festival are visibly affected. The talk of the prevailing multi-dimensional crisis — featuring political instability, constitutional breakdown and economic meltdown — in the country dominated media discourse even in the build-up to the joyous occasion of Eid.

Confusion over if and when the elections, particularly to the dissolved legislatures of Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, will be held has worsened the crisis, with even the Supreme Court order failing to provide a way out. Between a ruling coalition desperate to stay in power by delaying elections while blaming the judiciary for overreach and an opposition party attacking the security establishment and threatening to hold the system hostage if it is not allowed to quickly return to power, the people of Pakistan are drowning in an unprecedented crisis which no party or group can individually address.

PDM leaders claim they took over from PTI to save Pakistan. Imran Khan and the PTI claim the PDM is sinking the country and he is the only one capable of saving the country. Let us split the difference, and instead of accepting both sides’ arguments as half-truths, recognise them as total falsehoods. The PDM — for both legitimate and questionable reasons — wanted power. Imran made up domestic and foreign conspiracies while ordering illegal parliamentary maneuvering to cover up the discontent his misrule had created in his coalition. Meanwhile, it was Imran’s economic team that dug and drove us into the hole that the PDM finance minister is now taking to new depths. They need not accept their mistakes in public, but they must all make good faith efforts to work together and turn the country around, lest there be nothing left to rule.

.Published in The Express Tribune, April 22^nd, 2023.

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