EDITORIAL: Former Punjab home minister Hashim Dogar literally asked for the axe when he told a press conference that the provincial government would not use state resources to facilitate PTI’s (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s) ‘long march’.
The party chairman was already fuming that he just watched from the side as containers were taken from the province to the capital, to block the march, and because he didn’t punish police officers that obstructed the previous march in May.
When all this lit up PTI’s social media platforms, and he became the subject of the kind of ridicule normally reserved for the party’s opponents, the end was never very far. He may have cited personal and health reasons in his hand-written resignation, but the word is pretty much out that he was asked to bow out.
That and the fact that Omar Cheema – briefly Punjab governor after Chaudhary Sarwar’s unceremonious departure – has been put in charge shows that the PTI leadership is very serious about using Punjab’s muscle as it goes for the jugular.
In the short time that he had the spotlight, Cheema proved himself a dogmatic and fierce loyalist that Khan likes best. And now that he has been given him Punjab’s most sensitive ministry, without even waiting for Chief Minister Pervez Elahi to come back from London, it seems that the “final call” that the PTI supremo keeps talking about might not be too far away.
That raises several very difficult legal and political questions. The Islamabad High Court (IHC) just threw out PTI’s plea for revoking Section 144 in the capital. Therefore, if two provincial governments help a political party defy orders of the federal government, upheld by the court, prohibiting large gatherings, then wouldn’t they too be party to the offence? PTI openly says that it will settle for nothing less than toppling the “imported government”, and if the Punjab and KP governments actively lend a hand, how long before governor’s rule is on the table in Islamabad? And has anybody given any thought to how the so-called establishment might react to the country’s leading politicians paralysing it, effectively running it into the ground?
Needless to say, of course, that PTI’s obsession with this game of thrones is playing out at a very unfortunate time for Pakistan. It’s not clear how it will unfold for any of the political parties, but it’s very clear that it will hurt the economy, the country and its people; especially the millions still struggling to find their feet after the devastation of the floods.
It’s a shame that the political elite is consumed with hatred for each other just when the country needs to come together. This is proof enough, if any were still needed, that they hold nothing dearer than their own power and privilege; definitely not the interests and needs of the people.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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