THE opposition Tehreek-i-Tahafuz Ayin-i-Pakistan has announced that there will be no more talks with the government till the latter yields on the one thing it has resolutely sought to prevent: a meeting with jailed former prime minister Imran Khan. Having handed authority for further negotiation to Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Mahmood Khan Achakzai, the TTAP has made that meeting a precondition for a return to the table. If there is any desire among the decision-makers to keep political temperatures in check, the government will take up Mr Achakzai’s offer to reason with Mr Khan. The opposition leader is, after all, a veteran politician viewed with respect across party lines. Unfortunately, it is unlikely that the government is in a reflective mood. It not only managed to dismiss the elected PTI government in KP, but has also had its decision approved by a joint sitting of parliament.

That move has poisoned the well. The trouble is that few, other than those who imposed emergency and governor’s rule on KP, are convinced of the government’s ‘security’ rationale, which they see as a fig leaf for an overreaction by the government and its allies, that is unlikely to hold for long: the set-up imposed on the province faces daunting odds. In the four-and-a-half years since the PTI’s government in the centre was ousted, its successors have failed to deliver better living conditions to the people. The people have only heard the words ‘austerity’ and ‘stabilisation’ during this period, and it has often seemed that the former, in particular, has applied only to the public at large, while those responsible for steering the country out of a protracted polycrisis have merely assigned blame and levelled accusations. Every day that passes adds to the public’s disaffection with the mode of governance.

The government should understand that the PTI’s protest march and its reaction to it will look like nothing more than a storm in a teacup on the timescale against which governance is measured. It may not realise it, but it has fallen into the same trap the PTI fell into during its truncated time in power. The PTI remained obsessed with hounding its opponents over corruption; the governments that have followed it have similarly consumed themselves with hounding the PTI out of the political sphere. All seem to be missing the big picture — an economy stretched to its limits and a populace experiencing increasing levels of hunger and poverty while outsized egos clash against each other. It is regrettable that the politics of one of the largest, most populous nations of the world has been reduced to single-item vendettas. This must stop. Mr Achakzai has offered a way back to the table, and the government should seize the opportunity.

Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2026