The Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) Rehbar Committee meeting in Islamabad on Saturday was a relatively lacklustre affair as the continued absence of the PPP,along with other parties, meant that the PDM was no longer a credible alternative to the government. It is not just the absence of the PPP, but also the PML(N),which is now the sole backbone of the PDM, that has got divergent strands within it, and is still sending mixed signals, with President Shahbaz Sharif pressing in one direction, and Vice-President Maryam Nawaz in another. It might not be possible for the PDM to do more than hold a few rallies, as the Rehbar Committee has decided. Its silence shows that the PDM will not be able to bring down the government. If it cannot, then even its rallies will lose momentum.
The PDM needs to realize that there are many problems facing it that will also make the government feel pressure. The economy might be a constant, but there is also the foreign policy challenge posed by the change in Afghanistan. There is also the new national education curriculum, on which the opposition has yet to fully express its views. Even the issue of electoral reform, symbolized by the introduction of electronic voting machines, has yet to receive proper opposition input, even though the government is fully invested in it, and the opposition is deeply interested in it. Another issue in which the opposition parties are deeply interested is the NAB law.
The PDM parties need to realise that without the PPP, the opposition cannot expect to exert on the government the kind of weight necessary for it to pay attention on these issues. The PPP must also realise that it alone cannot bring pressure to bear and it needs the weight of the combined opposition to survive. It must realise that the challenge posed by the PTI in its interior Sindh stronghold, through Arbab Ghulam Rahim, cannot be ignored. Instead of being picked off one by one, a united approach is required at this juncture.
