Goodbye and hello

PML-N's idea was to put the screws on the PPP using all forums using power shortages as an issue.

Anyone looking for a reality check need look no further than Pakistan’s political scene. Any attempt to predict the outcome of a political situation is met with an astounding response. The problem might be applying standard democratic norms as the benchmark with which to measure any political decision.

PML-N today called for a nation-wide strike against power outages. There are a number of rallies planned across the nation. This is politically astute one might think. No opposition party would squander this opportunity of pushing its rival against the wall especially this close to an election.

The PML-N had made their intentions clear when it called the current Punjab Assembly session. This was its final push to the PPP. The idea was to put the screws on the PPP using all forums using power shortages as an issue.

Friday in the Punjab Assembly turned out, instead, to be a comedy of errors. Negotiations were held in the house’s Business Advisory Committee to hammer out a consensus resolution on power outages. Yes, you read that right. Consensus. Wasn’t the resolution supposed to be against the recklessness, incompetence and negligence of the PPP-led federal government?

It is a mystery as to what made the treasury discuss the language of the resolution with the PPP.

The best part of all of this is that PML-N still plans to mobilise in the streets against the parties with whom they laboriously worked to bring out a consensus resolution.

The PPP is of course, right now, having a great laugh. Instead of a scathing resolution, they signed a paper which will amount to a whole lot of hot air.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 31^st, 2012.