Talks or turmoil?

The PTI's long march has, on its seventh day, swept like a whirlwind across the south of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and is now inching towards Swabi. Its next destination is Islamabad - a move, of course, fraught with consequences. This march aims to build pressure on a federal government which is wary of the opposition's likely storming of the capital. With the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi already on high alert, barricaded with containers and a heavy deployment of law enforcement agencies, the way forward should be to defuse the situation through dialogue. Yet, the reality on the ground is driven by K-P Chief Minister Sohail Afridi, who has managed to rally his base from the front at a time when his own party is in disarray and lacks a cohesive political strategy.

The million-dollar question is: what's next? The federal government has been mulling Governor's rule in the province but is yet to do so, perhaps because of a lack of consensus with its coalition partners. The PTI, on the other hand, has a single-point agenda: compliance with the August 18 Supreme Court order as a precondition for coming to the negotiation table. The TTAP, however, believes that an instant audience with Imran Khan can help lower the political mercury and stall the march on the capital. That puts the government in a fix, as it has not been able to win over the opposition by providing it with due political space.

The two rounds of talks last week ended in a stalemate. Yet, there is a silver lining, and that is the offer by JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman to convene an All Parties' Conference while recognising the opposition's right to march on the capital as a constitutional prerogative. One step back from either side could certainly pave the way for a leap forward. All that is desired is a set of confidence-building measures, such as enabling opposition leaders to meet with the incarcerated former PM, subsequently leading to the suspension of the protest and kick-starting a dialogue. Confrontation only begets instability - an outcome that must be avoided at all costs.