After 14 long years, two chief political rivals met to discuss the prospects of an in-house change in the parliament. But the pressing point remains whether this lowkey bonhomie between Shehbaz Sharif and Pervaiz Elahi is earth-shattering or not for Prime Minister Imran Khan?
Actions of PDM and other opposition parties over the past four years remained futile and akin to running away from the battlefield on several occasions. This is exactly what PML-Q leaders openly pointed out which ought to be enough for the disunited opposition.
This is further strengthened by Water Resources Minister Moonis Elahi and PM Khan providing favourable statements for their respective parties.
Nevertheless, key government officials also seem to be obsessed with what the opposition does which isn’t healthy for democracy to thrive. Putting each other down for political point-scoring has resulted in key public issues remaining on the back-burner which should ideally be tackled jointly by treasury and opposition benches.
With a year and a half left, a better solution would be letting the assemblies complete their tenure with key domestic and foreign policy matters being debated upon and resolved given the plethora of crises Pakistan faces owing to multiple factors.
For the opposition, bringing down the government through undemocratic or shady means would be a regretful step and history won’t forgive. Whereas, the government needs to act maturely and sideline people who bring nothing but disrepute. More importantly, public issues need to be prioritised on a wider scale especially when it comes to economic uplifting, healthcare, education and rising extremist tendencies in the society.
Democracy in Pakistan is still in relative infancy which needs to move towards consistency and follow a model which provides set criteria for a functional and thriving state.
PM Khan often quotes several governance models ‘to follow’ so the least the government can do is initiate the process for the greater good of the society rather than creating noise.
