JUST as we were settling down for the onslaught of summer, the government has raised the political temperature for reasons best known to it.

Apparently not satisfied with the unprecedented concentration of power, they have already achieved after weakening of the presidency, the judiciary and the GHQ, the PM and his men are hell-bent on pulverizing the last remaining islands of independence that remain outside their direct control. Thus, we are witnessing today a concerted campaign against the NGO movement and the print media.

In both cases, government spokesmen have stated with a straight face that their crackdown has nothing to do with the freedom of expression or human rights. Excuse me if I take this claim with a pinch of salt. NGOs like ASR, Shirkatgah and the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan are being targeted.Under the garb of "scrutinizing" the accounts of these and other organizations, a number of frivolous charges are being laid at their door. Since they don't get any funds from the government, this high-handed exercise is simply a method devised to harass and hobble institutions that refuse to dance to our rulers' tune.

While the ongoing attack on the free press has been discussed and denounced extensively in this and other newspapers, it is important to see it as part of a pattern of paranoia and a pathological hunger for total power. The manner of Najam Sethi's arrest, his continuing detention and the orchestrated campaign against his reputation indicate the length the government is willing to go to stifle dissent. Information Supremo Mushahid Hussain's claim that Sethi's arrest has nothing to do with any threat to the freedom of speech is as credible as the Serb protestation that they are innocent of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Kosovo.

Unfortunately, those elected to high office in Pakistan tend to be fairly unsophisticated where the rights and responsibilities of different institutions of a democratic dispensation are concerned. With a feudal mindset (if not background), they tend to see things in black and white: if you aren't with them, you are automatically against them. And if you are against the government, then you are ipso facto against the state, and hence a traitor. This linear logic makes them the implacable enemies of those who see things in shades of gray, and are critical of the ills they see around them. In this narrow, paranoid worldview, loyal friends are rewarded with contracts, plots and portfolios, while perceived enemies are to be incarcerated and humiliated if they can't be hanged immediately.

Indeed, through its viciousness, this government has succeeded in the very difficult task of generating sympathy for Benazir Bhutto and Asif Zardari. By hounding the erstwhile first couple relentlessly without cleaning up its own act, the PML leadership has given the opposition a lease of life it might not otherwise have got. The third degree Zardari has clearly been subjected to is a grim portent of things to come.

There has been an element of desperation in the way the government has lashed out in all directions in the last couple of months, and this behaviour has triggered the usual spate of speculation about its imminent fall. Nobody seems to have any clear idea of how a change is to come about, but from Islamabad to Karachi, there is speculation about the coming events. In our recent history, such wishful thinking has too often been transformed into self-fulfilling prophecy.

Politicians not suffering from a suicidal bent of mind have known the dangers of opening too many fronts at the same time, thus uniting a fractured opposition. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, secure in his grip on power, committed the cardinal sin of angering and humiliating his enemies simultaneously. Now Nawaz Sharif, armed with the knowledge of his control over the key institutions of state, is forcing the smaller provinces and most political parties to seek common cause against him. He is giving them a focus for their grievances and fuel for their anger and insecurities. Where he could have been magnanimous in victory, he is being ungenerous and vindictive.

Clearly, he is not being well served by his inner circle of advisers. At a time when the international situation demands greater internal cohesion than ever before, government policies are driving a wedge between the people and the administration. Indeed, not content with pushing domestic allies away, the PML has successfully alienated traditional friends like Iran and United States. We have seldom been so isolated internationally. Just when the fallout from our nuclear tests last year was settling down, many countries have been revolted by the systematic destruction of institutions we are witnessing today.

One small example of the siege mentality that has gripped this government is the confiscation of the current issue of the Economist for a critical leader the magazine has carried. Basically, the editors have suggested that in view of this government's attack on democratic institutions and human rights, international donors should halt the flow of aid. Now we may disagree with this point of view, but confiscating the copies of the publication, even temporarily, is an immature and unsophisticated reaction. Apart from the fact that the offending article has already been reproduced in Pakistani newspapers, anybody who reads the Economist regularly has access to a computer and can download the leader over the internet. By acting in such a ham-fisted manner, the government only reinforces the impression that it is desperate.

One question a number of us are constantly asking is what will Nawaz Sharif do with absolute power when he has obtained it? Even now, he is master of all he surveys, but instead of getting on with the job he was elected to perform, he is wasting his time and energy in the self-defeating effort to amass yet more power at the cost of the other pillars of the state. In the process, he is making a mockery of the democratic process and the rule of law.

At the outset of his tenure over two years ago, Nawaz Sharif had a splendid opportunity to tackle the many problems facing Pakistan. He was elected, first and foremost, as a competent manager who would jump-start the economy. By any reckoning, he has failed in this task. Instead, he has expended all his goodwill and political capital on taking on the presidency, the judiciary, the GHQ and now the press. He may succeed in controlling all of them for a short while, but sooner or later, he will discover that he has won a Pyrrhic victory.