By the time this editorial was written, the PPP’s Sherry Rehman had clarified that there was no truth to the rumours. That there hadn’t been some sort of consensus within the ruling PDM on the League’s Ishaq Dar as caretaker prime minister.
The decision would have been symbolic – and catastrophic – as the ruling coalition would have thrown away even the pretense of a neutral caretaker regime by appointing, perhaps the most important cabinet member after the PM himself, as the caretaker PM.
Yes, we cannot take the government to book over mere rumours, but the way Dar himself addressed these rumours in media appearances seemed to imply that the possibility was being seriously discussed. They should have been strongly denied, instead of the faux humility and half-denials of a man being selected for a job.
In fact, so bad was the government’s media management regarding the issue, that the PTI is set to already include it in its arsenal of complaints, even if it didn’t happen. (“They were even about to..”)
As things stand now, the odds are stacked against the former ruling party, with a huge chunk of the leaders having jumped ship, most of them, under reported – and apparent – duress. The party’s chairman is facing a bevy of court cases (some under clownish charges, others not so much) and there is a bit of a gag order on him on the mainstream legacy media.
The times were tough for the news media and the political opposition during the previous dispensation; Pakistan had moved several rungs down on the press freedom index under the government of Imran Khan and the then opposition were facing cases that were clearly farcical. That things are worse under the current administration is a sad sign of the times. Pakistan’s political class is now supping with the devil just to make shortsighted gains against foes with whom they have more in common than the devil would like them to believe.
On this front, even though at the moment, the blame lies squarely on the ruling coalition for acquiescing to the onslaught, it would also bode well for the erstwhile ruling party to do some introspection. The major two parties of the PDM have had a lot of serious gripes against each other, but they did decide to bury the hatchet. The PTI’s chairman, on the other hand, almost made it some sort of virtue to not even treat them like representatives of a quantum of people much larger than the ones that had voted in the PTI.
