IT is difficult to recall the last time when it was so noisy in this country. This is a real explosion of sounds and voices, a million clashing chants being let go at once, at the speed and with the purpose and intensity of a boxer who wants to overwhelm. Little in terms of debate and argument filters through.

This does not by any sign appear to be an attempt by a country at resolving a problematic, path-hindering affair and moving ahead. It is an unending show that captures our obsession with maintaining positions, as a politician offers himself up for inquiry, at the same time clinging jealously to his prime ministerial badge.

This title in itself takes so much away from the value of the exercise. Yet the fanfare is unceasing, the pride is written large on the faces of those setting a new standard in accountability. We are celebrating our inability to look beyond appearances, record-breaking or otherwise and our knack for turning everything controversial.

It is an unending show that captures our obsession with maintaining positions, as a politician offers himself up for inquiry, at the same time clinging jealously to his prime ministerial badge.

It is obvious that the issue is going to outlast the joint investigation team which is these days creating all kinds of records by summoning the powerful and their kin for a ‘voluntary’ unprecedented probe into the accumulation of assets. The JIT cannot settle this case.

Worse, the fear is that we Pakistanis might end up defying all analyses about what could provide an acceptable departure from our current confrontational situation.

This was one opinion from the start. The conflict between the PML-N and PTI began with Imran Khan’s allegations that the 2013 election had been badly rigged. But, as the noise has been getting louder and louder ever since, one remedy that was often proposed was a general election. That option was favoured by many, so much so that there were a steady number of calls that asked the PML-N leadership to go for snap polls. 

It was thought that given the PTI’s repeated refusal to be pacified by whatever the PML-N government had offered it from time to time, only a people’s verdict could provide an answer to the long-running fight.

The kind of atmosphere that has come to prevail in the country over the last four years unleashes its own dark scenarios — scenarios that do not throw up half-ideal solutions to the dispute in the foreseeable future.

Or maybe, more specifically, it is the loud, deafening train of voices raised by the oncoming of the JIT that is creating this dire impression.

Whatever the case, the feeling that this dispute between the two main contenders for power may go even beyond the next general election is growing.

There is as yet nothing on the horizon that could suggest a turn from the protest phase that everyone — including the government — is happy to be in. There’s no relief from this oppression caused by group after group of protesters belonging to the treasury and to the opposition taking to the streets.

Among the routes they block is the one that is supposed to take the country out of this confrontational period to an area where breathing could become easier for everyone. It is difficult to see how we are going to come out of this state we have all become a little too fond of living in — beginning with the journalists, the so called moderators, who are so deeply mired in their own intense infighting.

These are no occasional tiffs but more part-of-routine threads running through the system. There is this kind of permanence about these big and small, personal and party conflicts. Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan says that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is facing a wall which he must now break in order to escape. This could well be said about the whole country that is comprised of souls who are not ready to shed their confrontational mode.

Take the case of PML-N lawmaker Khawaja Asif. He made himself the object of the most unflattering compliments sometime ago with his derogatory remarks about a PTI member of the National Assembly. But apparently so fond is the gentleman about the wall he has created in front of him that he has repeated the folly, again targeting a woman politician who has just joined the PTI.

Khawaja sahib is perhaps perturbed by this new PTI arrival in his hometown Sialkot. However, by expressing his sentiment the way he has he could be deliberately catering to a gallery that has been long fed over and above the usual dose allowed by the old concepts of political rivalry. There are instances in history which prove that misogyny does help individuals and parties garner votes.

The current longest stand-off in the history of Pakistan only encourages these old tendencies. Remember the emphasis is on not actually solving the issue but on perpetuating a game where both sides claim to be the victim. Everyone is content to be caught up in this circle.

The JIT was always unlikely to offer any kind of lasting resolution to this power feud. But maybe it has allowed itself to be made rather ineffective all too easily.

There has been plenty of mud flying all around in the shape of angry statements from all sides, aimed to discredit the investigation. No less significant has been the joint team’s own contribution that has added a few unwanted decibels to the maddening discussion.

The question is, what will these unprecedented appearances by the powerful before the probe committee lead to?

Will these be just a source for the ruling few to celebrate a victory of democracy and a vindication of the system? They could still be a source of nourishment for the rule of law in the long run, the diehard democrats tell us. It could well have signified prompter relief in a less noisy environment.

The writer is Dawn’s resident editor in Lahore.

Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2017