THE leader of the political party involved in the May 9 incident has always had a penchant for upsetting his own political cart. First, he fell from grace in the manner he conducted party affairs when a completely parliamentary procedure of no confidence motion was moved against him. Later, the party crossed the red line during the infamous incidents of May 9.

It was expected that he would learn lessons from his mistakes, but, lo and behold, despite winning several seats in the recently held general elections, the leader once again shot himself in the foot by repeating the old mantra of having nothing to do with the two mainstream political parties to form a coalition government.

The latest blunder is the decision to write a letter to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), asking the latter to link its programme to an election audit. The inflexible and anti-state behaviour is resulting in the loss of sympathy he and his party ever had. The perception is getting stronger that perhaps those who wield power were and are justified in what they did and are doing, and that if released from jail, the man would cause nothing but political instability by creating chaos and anarchy across the country.

There are concerns that whatever space the man and his party have earned in the recent elections, they would sabotage any steps taken by the government, and

waste the political capital by sabotaging the IMF programme, scare the investors, and once again lead the county to the brink of default. Such a show of rigidity and anti-state measures are like shooting oneself in the foot, and, in the process, casuing serious harm to the national interest.

Gulsher Panhwer
Johi

Published in Dawn, March 3rd, 2024