A SMALL news item in an Urdu newspaper brings the kind of relief you, me, the incurable cynic and the downright naive in the neighbourhood had so desperately been looking for.

It says that a group of women workers, activists if you are looking for a grander honorific, belonging to the PTI refused to take part in a particular rally organised by their party in Lahore.

There was no mention of any security scare which held these ladies back, and they were most certainly not acting on advice from Rana Sanaullah, a gentleman who must always flaunt his own little home ministry at the loudest square in town. Nor did they say they were in any way deterred by the weather or by any sudden discovery about the futility of fighting the system that has, if and when needed, benefited some who are today present in the Insafiyan camp.

The ladies had a very simple, basic justification for saying they were unavailable. The rally had been called for a Sunday and this group of women PTI workers reasoned that Sunday was a family day, which, apparently, they didn’t want to spend shouting in the streets.

We as humans need a break from the madness that passes for politics and anti-politics in this land.

It was a statement remarkable for the murky, utterly confusing times we are stuck in right now. Quite frankly, that was about the only political statement that made some sense from among the whole series which came out over the last fortnight and more, with contributions from every corner and party in the country. That there is life beyond the melee that the likes of Mian Nawaz Sharif, Imran Khan and Khursheed Shah amongst others have created for 24/7 national engagement. That we as humans need a break from the madness that passes for politics and anti-politics in this land.

The very respected PTI women were very kind to have provided an example of how you need to take a break from the intense monotone — where, among other oppression, it is incumbent upon writers and columnists of all hues to either predict that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was on his way out or that the very promising career of Imran Khan was about to come to yet another abrupt end.

These writers should have by now realised, without necessarily admitting it in public, the risks inherent in forecasting the rise and fall of politicians in the Pakistan of today. The positions have been shifting even more frequently and drastically than was the case in the past. Clues to future twists in politics — the constants — are hard to find and even more difficult to cling to.

For the old fashioned, there may be one big clue, tagged to the identification of the source of all this trouble for the prime minister. Once the source is traced to the establishment, which in itself is not very difficult to do in the presence of the always ready and self-declared volunteers for the military working in the media, then you may be able to get to an answer that has some chance of winning public approval.

You can easily show there is a pattern to how the campaign against Prime Minister Sharif brings together, in a sustained effort, noble souls renowned for being close to you know who. You can string together the pearls that the group has been coming up with as a guide to the bright future the detractors of this government have in front of them and self-applaud your brilliant analysis.

But the real battle is for those who want to be innovative and fresh in their approach, if plainly out of boredom.

They are unable to or find it extremely unexciting to use this old angle to see an imminent dislodging of the prime minister — the period of imminence in this case stretching to anything between three months to the start of next year.

There have been so many predictions about the future of the Sharifs and their challengers that the only new, revealing option that has not been used is someone actually standing up and making the claim and getting appreciated for the fact that he or she didn’t know what outcome this mess will lead to. Say this simply: I don’t know where we are headed, and let yourself wander off in the less traversed territory, such as writing about political activists who have the modern sensibilities to once in a while claim an off-day from the crazy routine as of right.

Not that we can have high hopes of the big politicians following the example any time soon. Their concepts of family continue to be at odds with those nurtured by popular sentiment at a distance from them.

Take the eminent case of none other than our prime minister who was only the other day heard proudly reading out glorious entries from his family logbook. He went with full strength to prove the point that in his family the fathers passed down the legacy and riches to their sons — and presumably daughters as well in this age and time, even though he didn’t say as much about that. It was an abridged account of a journey that must have left so many green and ignited so many dreams.

But consider for a moment what Nawaz Sharif was required by the circumstances to attempt and establish. He was supposed to delink himself from the business enterprise his sons have created by virtue, so his party colleagues have been telling us, of the sheer business acumen they seem to have inherited from their illustrious forefathers.

The emphasis all along was on the personal individual acumen that the prime minister’s sons are said to have been blessed with, leading them to make fortunes out of nothing. The Nawaz Sharif speech with its stress on transfer of wealth from one generation suggested exactly the opposite.

The writer is Dawn’s resident editor in Lahore.

Published in Dawn, May 20th, 2016