LAST night, I dreamt of Hogwarts again. Indeed, the time is ripe to revisit Harry Potter and Hogwarts — the boarding school where the series is based — for here in Pakistan, we are living in the most ‘confunding’ times possible. Surely, the ‘Confundus Charm’ has been used on everyone. And the result is greater confusion than ever before.

Let us begin at the beginning. Of late, the soothsayers among our midst, like Prof Trelawny, have rarely got a prophecy right. For days, they told us ominously that decisions had been made. First came the warning about the departure of Sohail Afridi. Within days, we were forewarned. And then the tea leaves predicted an emergency in KP. Apparently, it was the only province with a dysfunctional government — the rest are all on their way to winning the Triwizard Cup.

But these leaf readers do not face consequences. Indeed, they were hardly employed for their competence. For a number of them, the job has not been to report, analyse, or communicate. Instead, comfortably employed, they do what a ‘howler’ does in the Harry Potter series — pass messages to those who have fallen into disfavour, before ‘self-destructing’ once the job is done. Dignity and credibility appear to have little to do with messaging — neither for these ‘journalists’ nor the politicos who tweet similar warnings.

Be that as it may, the problem lies less with the messengers and more with the higher-ups guiding them, and who tell them to announce a disqualification one day and an emergency the next. And then opt for talks, which clearly were not going to succeed — because neither side wanted to negotiate. They simply wanted to win.

Pakistan’s current political landscape bears a striking resemblance to the world of Harry Potter.

Consider that for weeks, the PTI was pushing for access to Imran Khan and treatment for his health issues but by the time the talks were held, the focus shifted to terrorism. The government had spent most of its energies on explaining how the party’s founding chairman was fine and was receiving the medical treatment he needed, and the PTI was just kicking up a fuss for nothing. And then it all shifted. Terrorism entered the conversation as abruptly as the short-lived romance between Hermione and the character called Krum in the fourth Harry Potter book.

But while the romance twist was undeveloped, the same cannot be said of the terrorism angle in our politics. Terrorism and its causes have been discussed for very long. But it seems the root of the matter remains unclear to those in power. For longer than can be remembered, the state’s entire focus has been on pushing the idea that terrorism in Pakistan is due to the foreign hand. The groups carrying out attacks are called Fitna al-Hindustan and Fitna al-Khawarij. When attacks take place in Pakistan, it puts pressure on the relationship with Kabul as usually the attacker’s identity is linked to the lands across the border, also referred to as the ‘Durand Line’. Operations are carried out and these slow down the pace of attacks. It was all to do with the external enemies. Suddenly, it turns out that terrorism is due to the uncooperative attitude of the PTI government in Peshawar. This hits as hard as the unexpected death of Sirius Black in the Potter series.

Who does one blame now for the attacks? The PTI or the Afghan Taliban? More confusion. It will get worse, I fear, as the talk of emergency and disqualification is back. More howling shall now commence.

None of this is to suggest that the other side, the PTI, is the hero here. It is about as self-pitying and as tolerable as Kreacher the elf. The party announced the ‘long march’ without any strategy or plan; it didn’t even consult its allies such as the TTAP. Frankly speaking, all it wanted to do was escape the growing anger of its supporters. And once the announcement was made, then the party leadership (if it can be called that) sat down to figure out a plan. The solution it found was to hope for talks and a negotiated end, allowing it to cancel the march. And that didn’t really work out the way it had hoped, did it? Just like Voldemort’s idea of killing Harry Potter the baby.

So now the party is in even more trouble than before. For the establishment is angrier than before and there is little indication the supporters will be satisfied. Quite the dilemma it is; just like Wormtail who tried to play it safe but eventually joined the ‘dark side’, only to end up dead.

In comparison, the PPP does seem to have played it well. For the party has perfected the art of changing sides and positions so frequently that it is hard to figure out where it stands at all. Does it even stand? It supports the government, but sits on talk shows and transforms into Moaning Myrtle. And has been doing so for over two years now. Its sources kept telling everyone it would be averse to an emergency and confrontations but came out of the recent PTI-government talks, declaiming its concern and firm stand on terrorism. As if the party is known for its belief in anything but the ‘shyshtem’ in Sindh. And once Mohsin Naqvi (in the manner of Dolores Umbridge, who looked cute and cuddly, but was a hawk) landed in KP, the PPP governor had no qualms about holding a meeting with him along with provincial government officers. Indeed, the PPP, Severus Snape-like, is hard to like and hard to qualify as a good guy. Only death was able to absolve him. With PPP it might just be when it’s out of power — if ever.

Postscript: This piece might be of interest only to those who still remember the Harry Potter series. For the rest, there are always the howlers and their predictions.

The writer is a journalist.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2026