Desperate tactics

Pushing the opposition to the wall is unbecoming of a political culture. The government is excessively over-reacting. Booking more than 400 PTI supporters, including Imran Khan's all three sisters, under terrorism charges is no less than a desperate joke. They are blamed for staging a sit-in outside Adiala Jail, awaiting the authorities to grant them permission for an audience with the incarcerated former PM in line with explicit court orders. Likewise, cases registered by the federal police against 70 of the 92 K-P legislators squarely reflect that confrontation is the way to go. The public mandate is being disrespected for the sake of timely political gains. This move will push both sides towards a dead-end of radicalised otherness.

A divisive and unsynchronised PTI is now on the edges, and the rulers' desperation is enabling hardliners to take a front seat. The simmering unrest among the electorate in K-P and the calls for marching on the federal capital is a case in point. The opposition's demand to have a line of communication, as per law and jail manual, with the PTI founder is logical. Khan is a political prisoner, and has every right to meet his family, lawyers and associates, and holding him in solitary confinement is a breach of law and the Constitution. The same narrative is getting a shot in the arm as Amnesty International, foreign media and the UN human rights interlocutors have called for abiding by the book, and undoing repressive measures.

The soaring estrangement is a ticking bomb, and needs to be addressed in a passive manner. The way ahead is to engage the opposition and not to put up a show of bravado by dispersing them with water cannons in the chills of winter. Blanket booking of political activists and witch-hunt campaigns have never delivered in the past. Those in power should take steps for the opposition to come to the dialogue table, and both sides need to budge from their stated positions in wider national interest.