THE PML-N government made a statement at the outset that it doesn’t believe in rushing things. It has been taking its time in dealing with issues, and this approach is most aptly manifest in economics — an area which Mian Nawaz Sharif holds close to his heart. Slowly and unruffled by calls urging it to hurry, the government has built it up to a point where it could claim some prop-up steps and back this assertion with some figures.

Can the same be said about the government’s handling of other affairs? On the crucial front of militancy, the government has been moving cautiously, and it has to be repeated, in line with the mandate the PML-N was given, but doubts do creep in often.

It is as if the government is waiting for a path to a solution to emerge on its own, and all it appears to want to do at some critical junctures during talks with the militants is to wait and see. It takes a really generous observer to compliment the government on this strategy, given the urgency of the matter.

A third big issue, energy shortage, remains a challenge. Here the measured promises of today are a huge relief from the meaningless sloganeering that some PML-N leaders indulged in when they were not in power. The facts have since sunk in and this is one area where the PML-N politicians have admitted to have earlier erred in their estimates of the size of the job at hand.

These confessions are signs of a good habit anchored in patience, deliberation and correction, but there are always some tasks more urgent than others. No government should allow itself to be seen to withdraw from a scene where it is desperately, immediately needed; as in moments when a state institution is caught up in a vicious, potentially devastating stand-off with the country’s largest media group.

This is sensitive territory. The PML-N government wouldn’t readily admit that here also, it is still in the process of assessing the problem and its intensity as felt by various affected groups. The fact is that the conflict is yet new to this country and everyone, including the parties involved and the government would require some experience to grasp the situation fully and know just how potent the crisis is and how determined the conflicting forces are.

Pakistan may have been around for 67 years but this is still an early experiment in defining the roles of state institutions and media in accordance with modern democratic standards the world over. These standards have beckoned locally in recent years and between the year 2008 and 2013, it took an elected government an entire term to fight the developing rules of business here. The party then in government strived so hard to keep the military establishment happy, only to realise that it had been badly mauled by the media and that it was a permanent suspect in the eye of the judiciary.

Today the media pushes at various places, some from within it doing it more vigorously and more creditably than others. The media is buoyed by its own recent success where it functioned in campaign mode against a less secure government in comparison to the more heavily mandated PML-N. It is inhabited by people who think of themselves as saviours more than just opinion-makers. Most of what the media wants is a given in modern societies, but the vociferous accusatory tone that it routinely adopts is a confirmation of how tough it is to secure these basic rights in Pakistan.

This most ugly episode involving Geo and ISI came at an awkward time for the Nawaz Sharif government. In the days immediately preceding the attack on Hamid Mir in Karachi, a few of the federal ministers had been embroiled in a controversy with the military, primarily over the Musharraf trial. Plenty of heat was generated and on more than one occasion during this period it was reported that at least one minister could be shown the door.

Then after days of tensions, just when an effort at reconciliation was under way, came the attack on Hamid Mir. This was a case where deliberations had to be done quickly and action begun early — which was asking a bit too much from a government still tentative about its role in relation to powerful state players on one hand and the media on the other.

The government did set up a judicial commission to investigate the issue, which was probably the best forum that was available in the circumstances. There were, however, other related issues which required some administrative guideline and direction. For instance, there were reports alleging the shutting down of Geo transmission in certain parts of the country.

There were assurances that justice would prevail, but there was no official explanation that could satisfy the people, who despite all their continued grievances have been enough trained by the media to ask probing questions at any given moment. They will find new ways of asking even if the current crisis makes it difficult for them to put questions as bluntly as they have been doing in recent years.

A government with ready-made preferences in the matter could have appeared to move faster for a solution, even if it heavily favoured one side. But this is an extremely complicated situation where the government itself doesn’t know how far it can go in asserting its own right to govern.

The writer is Dawn’s resident in Lahore.