Political activities in Islamabad and elsewhere has died down, as the ruling Pakistan Muslim League and the opposition trying to cope with the situation, arising out of Shaukat Aziz swearing in as premier and the events afterwards.
Simultaneous prorogation of the National Assembly and the Senate brought politics-related activities to a grinding halt and bulk of the politicians for the time being returned to their native towns.
Can this lull on the national scene be a prelude to hectic public meetings, demonstrations and rallies in the days to come is a question, being debated by the politicians.
Leaders of the opposition parties are silent for the time being, may be waiting for the things to shape up. As for a common man, who toils from dawn to dusk for bread and butter, he has no interest whatsoever is in the power game.
Gone are the days when he used to spend hours to be part of public meetings and rallies. The reason is his compounding economic woes, which are seldom discussed in the corridors of power or for that matter in the Parliament.
The prevailing situation suits the ruling coalition. The major opposition alliances stand divided on the uniform issue, more importantly on the 17th Amendment.
The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal has shrugged off the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) demand that the former should first admit its mistake in supporting the government on the amendment before they consider joining hands.
The MMA seems to be interested to jointly work with the ARD on the uniform issue. "Even if the MMA admits the mistake, there is no surety they will agree on a common action plan, as the alliance is not against the amendment, but wants President Pervez Musharraf to abide by its clauses, whereas the ARD wants its total repeal," Senator Farhatullah Babar said.
MMA Deputy Secretary General Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, however, laid emphasis on ARD-MMA co-operation, saying that otherwise, the rulers would get benefit from the tug of war.
He told Business Recorder that what the MMA did in January this year was the need of the hour. "The Parliament might have been sent home, had we not played a role in getting the amendment passed to end the LFO-oriented impasse," he said.
Apparently to promote politics of consensus, in his maiden speech at taking the vote of confidence from the National Assembly, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz offered an olive branch to the opposition, saying he would try to take them along.
However, since then and on some other occasions, he reiterated his desire, but to date, he has made no conscious effort to formally contact the opposition or invite them for a rendezvous.
Although, like his two predecessors, he has been sharing views with Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Makhdoom Amin Fahim and some other opposition leaders, but in the National Assembly. However, it will be premature to say whether or not Premier Shaukat's assertion was for only the media consumption.
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