While the debate within the PML(N) on reconciliation versus confrontation continues, those supporting confrontation have a case that cannot be lightly rejected. They maintain that those who rule are bent upon retaining their grip on politics while not allowing anyone to question their policies. There is therefore no other way but to confront them.
Despite having PEMRA at their beck and call, those in power have decided to get a firmer grip on the media through the Pakistan Media Development Authority (PMDA). Not satisfied with advice through SMS or phone calls before or during talk shows, media channel owners are told to sack those considered troublesome. Social media critics on the other hand have been handed over to trolls paid to undermine their integrity through malicious propaganda. If these critics still remain undeterred they are made to disappear till courts intervene and order their recovery. Some have also been subjected to physical torture.
Those in power do not tolerate independent judges who dare to cross redlines arbitrarily set up by the rulers. Character assassination campaigns are conducted against them while efforts are also made to seek their removal.
The opposition remains the major target of those in power Opposition leaders are arrested on made up charges by NAB or FIA and kept in custody for months, even when nothing can be proved against them. The idea is to break their will to criticize government policies.
The biggest weakness of the opposition leaders is to go after small gains at the expense of their rivals even if this breaks the opposition’s unity. Despite claims that they have learnt from their past mistakes opposition leaders have proved again and again that they are slow on the uptake. A long as they continue to fight over petty gains, forgetting that national interest requires unity, they will fail to rectify the system. What those in power need to realise is that muzzling all the critics will force them sooner or later to join hands and go after the ruler’s scalp.
