IT is not for nothing that the British were able to rule over the subcontinent so ‘efficiently’. The London weather does improve the vision and makes politicians see things in their right, pro-people perspective. And so London it is which has made the PML-Q leaders bind their famed political acumen with Dr Tahirul Qadri’s revolutionary thought to rescue a country which is always ripe for intervention by conscientious saviours. Already, much time has been lost. A few years ago, the learned Dr Qadri was a member of the National Assembly and the PML-Q was the ruling party. The Q-League bosses couldn’t invoke Doctor Sahib’s services for the country and its system back then but it is good they have rectified the mistake now.

The opposition PPP has quickly come up with its own take on the new alliance: everyone is free in a democracy to choose their partners for furthering a cause. Apparently, there are many in Pakistan who do not feel up to accepting such a simple explanation. They see a scheme emerging and at the same time the amazement expressed by some sections is remarkable, as if these sections did not quite see it coming. It is as if they were unaware of the very serious possibility that the various strands of protests building up against the government — sorry the system — could eventually merge with each other. The poor ‘critics’ are amazed by the merger and then they are a little puzzled as to why the PTI, which had held ‘synchronised’ rallies with Dr Qadri’s Pakistan Awami Tehreek and the PML-Q and whose leader Imran Khan also happened to be in London on the day, did not join this latest alliance. Clearly, there are people who would ideally see no partnership between the ‘undemocratic’ forces out to unsettle Pakistan. If worse comes to worse and the ideal changes, they would want the noisy spoilsport called PTI to be part of such an alliance — to make the scheme appear sufficiently sinister.

Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2014