Prime Minister Imran Khan cannot have his cake and eat it too. From what he said while talking to people, he still regards the opposition as corrupt and beneath his notice. His threat that they would find him more dangerous out of office than in it, indicated that he was contemplating the possibility of his ouster, and was now concerting measures on what to do if he was indeed ousted. His threat of a street movement sounded odd coming from the head of a government, and goes back to the heady days of the container at D Chowk. However, reviving such memories does not lessen the need of the government to get opposition agreement on two major issues, quite apart from the many that rise from day to day: NAB reform and Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). Both deal with issues the PTI has defined as central to its agenda, indeed central to its identity. Opponents see NAB as being misused against political opponents, and fear that the intention of introducing EVMs is to ensure that the PTI can be guaranteed victory in the next election. However, these will require opposition ownership if they are to obtain credibility.
This need has been conceded by Cabinet members, such as in Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry’s recent tweet, but Mr Khan has worked hard to maintain that area of incorruptibility about himself that is such an important part of his stock-in-trade.It might now be penetrating into Mr Khan’s mind that democracy is predicated on the belief that it is possible to hold opposing views about the actions the executive should perform, yet for them to be morally equivalent. The PTI still insists that any action other than what is proposed, can only be the result of moral turpitude, and instigated by corrupt motives.
The time is running out for the government to engage in discussions. Some voices are emerging in the opposition which must argue that the time for concessions is past, because fresh elections are over the horizon, and the PTI is no longer worth talking to, because now it would be more sensible to wait out the worst the government can do.
