First things first. The Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) will be holding the third rally of its ongoing anti-government campaign at Quetta, the capital of Balochistan, today. It was perhaps inevitable that as the graph of the PDM campaign of protest against the government heated up, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) government of Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan would retaliate in some manner or the other. The PM had himself been issuing 'blood curdling' threats at the opposition since the Gujranwala rally on October 16, 2020 addressed by Nawaz Sharif from London. If that show of force rattled the government, the even bigger one in Karachi on October 18, 2020 seems to have raised the ante even higher. The controversy surrounding the arrest of Maryam Nawaz's husband retired Captain Mohammad Safdar in his hotel room has certainly stepped up pressure on a seemingly beleaguered PTI government. The arrest in this manner of Captain Safdar (retd) just hours after the PDM rally in Bagh-i-Jinnah does not appear to be a coincidence. In fact it smacks of a double strike: pressure on and harassment of Maryam Nawaz, and attempted creation of misunderstandings between the two PDM allies, the PML-N and the PPP. Neither seems to have succeeded, considering Maryam Nawaz's defiant tone after the arrest, the bail granted to Safdar, and the coming together of the PML-N, PPP and Maulana Fazlur Rehman in seeing this as a crude and despicable action by the PTI federal government. If anything, the reaction to these events has done more damage to the PTI government than anyone else.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020