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Clouds of protests
Daily Times (More Articles by Daily Times)
MAY 21, 2019

The season of street protests is upon us. Leaders of 11

opposition parties, meeting at an iftar-dinner hosted by
Pakistan Peoples Party chairperson Bilawal Bhutto on Sunday,
have announced their intention to launch an anti-government
drive in the parliament and outside following some more
consultation.

Politics is all about giving a credible voice to public sentiments.

It is about time the opposition spoke for a people facing the
debilitating consequences of the fast deteriorating economic
conditions. Opinions might vary about the timing of the
opposition drive given the fact that the incumbents have yet to
complete a year at the helm of affairs. A majority would
however have no qualms about it. In fact most people would
consider it the opposition’s duty to pressure the government to
announce some pro-people measures in the coming budget.

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Prime Minister Imran Khan should realize that he can only

blame himself and some of his more strident colleagues for
this. Have they not been challenging the opposition to test the
waters, going as far as offering to arrange a container for their
use? There has not been a single conciliatory gesture from the
government, not even a consultation on issues of national
importance. If anything, government leaders have been
regularly issuing in lammatory statements rather than reaching
out to the opposition to ind a way out of the many crises the
nation faces.

Now that the opposition has found the one thing they can agree
one – the government – it will be interesting to see how the
next generation of the Sharif and Bhutto families fares in their
irst test of waging a street protest. Bilawal has shown his
political mettle by running a formidable election campaign
across Pakistan in 2018 and on the National Assembly loor
since the general elections. Maryam Nawaz has her mother’s
by-election campaign behind her. Both are likely to be con ident
about their chances. The situation could easily turn into an
undeclared war between their parties as both bid to grab more
space for their leaders. Will this drive a wedge in the joint
opposition? In the many anti-government drives he joined the
late Nawabzada Nasarullah Khan used to be the binding factor.
In the absence of an elder statesman whom all sides trust, the
responsibility to keep the opposition alliance intact will have to
be shared by leaders of all parties. This is something they owe
to the people. An opposition alliance is the irst step towards
holding a strident government to account, thereby creating
pressure for good governance. The opposition must see to it
that the government desists from imposing harsh iscal
measures on a public already reeling under in lationary
pressures. The opposition would do well however not to give
up on the parliament as a forum. A misadventure may harm the
continuity of elected governments for which many of its leaders
have fought hard and long. *

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