Political climate

The media continues to broadcast live interviews with people in the streets bitterly complaining of rising prices, unemployment, businesses closing down leading to retrenchments and their highly negative impact on their livelihood. They condemn the PTI government for its failure to fulfil its promises. The opposition quotes statistics in parliament to prove that the government is incompetent. The opposition parties however are yet not clear over how to deal with the situation. And, at a time when they are expected to lead the people, they remain disunited.

Soon after the last elections, the opposition parties had formed a grand alliance, with a Rahber Committee to formulate policies. The alliance broke amidst acrimony after the JUI-F initiated a movement to overthrow the government . The JUI-F blamed the two major parties of letting it down when they politely refused to join its sit-in. The PPP and the PML-N too have differences. Despite the differences between the PPP and the PML-N, each party knows that it is incapable of leading a movement on its own, partly because of its past failures to deliver and partly because of the deadly propaganda against its leadership. The sense of isolation is again leading them to muse over joining hands. They however remain unclear whether to demand fresh elections, in-house change, or a national government prior to fresh elections. Some maintain the government will fall under the weight of its own incompetence.

Jamshed Alam Siddiqui

Lahore