They aren’t small, unheard of outfits; the group of civil society organisations that want to facilitate the mediations between the PTI and ruling PDM include the heavy hitters: the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, the Pakistan Bar Council and the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists. These are on top of the list of more than a hundred civil society organizations that want to get the country out of the rut that it is in at the moment.
The ruling coalition, of course, isn’t hard to convince on the issue, the problem has been on the other side of the aisle. But there seems to have been a thawing, of sorts. While PTI chairman Imran Khan himself has reiterated that he isn’t going to attend the multiparty conference, he has given consent for his party to do so. Only to discuss elections, he says.
The gravity of our current perfect storm isn’t lost out on anyone. Obviously, external intervention and mediation is welcome; but it is fortunate that this mediation isn’t coming from the usual quarters. That particular sort of mediation would be forced, hamfisted and, therefore, unsustainable. No, it has come from civil society, which is a silver lining on our otherwise dark situation.
It is not just civil society, however. There is speculation that the business community also wants to throw its hat into the ring. The captains of industry and commerce aren’t usually the brightest sparks in any situation, but they can smell things pretty clearly when banks refuse to open LCs. Industrial units are shutting down, while retailers are also suffering, not just from the difficulties of importing ‘non-essentials items,’ but also the ever falling purchasing power of the consumers.
Politics, as they say, is the art of the possible. All sides need to talk.
