This is apropos a Business Recorder op-ed “The die is cast” carried by the newspaper yesterday. The writer, Rashed Rahman, has made a very interesting point in relation to government’s response to the Multi-Party Conference (MPC) hosted by the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and its young chairperson Bilawal-Bhutto Zardari recently. According to him, for example, “the government’s response was even more predictable than the MPC’s discourse. Their spokesmen trotted out the same, tired mantra of the opposition demanding to be let off the accountability hook and not much else. Frankly, this diatribe is by now producing diminishing returns in the absence of concrete achievements by a government still floundering two years into its tenure. In contrast, Nawaz Sharif’s hard hitting, scorching speech has set the political horizon on fire. …”

In my view, however, a former three-time elected prime minister of Pakistan had essentially hit out at the “establishment” of the country. His was, no doubt, a desperate move. One must not ignore the fact that a high court of the country has told the government that it is its (government’s) responsibility to ensure the presence of a convicted Nawaz Sharif before the court. Unfortunately, however, Nawaz appears to have lost a lot credibility since his conviction by a court of law.

NASRIN KHAN (LAHORE)

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020