Soaring political mercury

The crackdown on PTI supporters staging a sit-in outside Adiala Jail on Tuesday night is not acceptable under any tenets of democracy and civil society. The use of water cannons on peaceful activists in the chilling winter is quite inhumane. It has led to the rise of political mercury, which is unnerving for the harmony of an already divisive society, as it comes at the cost of heightened bickering and instability.

The PTI's demand for an audience with its jailed leader, Imran Khan, is logical and lawful in essence. The courts, too, have passed orders for it, and it is admissible by the rules of prison engagement, too. The government's contention, however, that "all doors are now closed" and the opposition party will be treated with a sledgehammer, is unfortunate and does not bode well. The rhetoric against the former PM is leading nowhere, rather pushing the fragile system into the abyss of anarchy and degeneration.

A political solution is the need of the hour. The diatribe of labelling the political opponents as "security threat, anti-state and traitor" has been played time and again in our chequered history. It did not serve any purpose and only weakened us as a unitary nation-state. It's time to step back from the brink and talk it out before it gets too late. PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali's desire for "common sense to prevail" solicits a quid pro quo from the government. Speaker National Assembly Ayaz Sadiq, who promised to broker a dialogue, must kick-start unconditional parleys with the leader of the opposition, Mehmood Achakzai, and this is how the stranded chariot of reconciliation can get moving.

With the economy in dire straits and the security conundrum on the western frontiers getting nasty, the government's brinkmanship to get on a war footing with the political opposition is myopic in essence. It will not help it attain any political currency. The messy equation can only be sorted out by reaching out to the opposition, and the release of all political prisoners can be a good confidence-building measure.