What lies ahead

The war of words between the government and the united opposition is continuing ahead of the PDM’s first rally scheduled for Gujranwala on October 16. There is now not much time ahead before what could become a potential showdown. The question of course, is what success it will have. Maryam Nawaz and Maulana Fazlur Rahman have both sounded upbeat in their speeches, with the Maulana Fazal saying that, while the PDM has nothing against any institutions, it opposes a government bent on bringing sedition charges against all its opponents, or hurting people through a price hike. The PML-N has made it clear that it is determined to bring down the government and has said that it believes the PPP and JUI-F will remain united in this cause. While the argument goes that the PPP has nothing to gain by bringing down the PTI government since it would regain only the government in Sindh, whereas the PML-N has some chance of regaining Punjab again, the PML-N leadership has said that this is beside the point and that it is certain the PPP is opposed is determined to stay joined in the front that has now been created. On Friday, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari too seemed to echo these sentiments.

The showdown then lies just ahead. There seem to have been some efforts at countering it by a series of sedition accusations against opposition members. That appears to have backfired terribly, and the Punjab and federal governments have openly tried to distance themselves from the sedition charges filed. But questions arise. Why would the police accept FIRs against major leaders when they are usually reluctant to file any case, especially since these leaders did not live in the jurisdiction of Shahdara and had nothing to do with it? The speech made by Mian Nawaz Sharif, which has brought some of the sedition charges, was made in a whole other country.

The main challenge will however lie in how many people the opposition parties are able to bring out on the streets ahead of their major rally in Quetta. It is true that the JUI-F has a great deal of street power and, despite some words of warning, will certainly use its madressah students for this purpose. But whether it can sustain a protest long enough to actually make a difference is a question of argument. We now have a completely divided political setup. Whatever else one might say, October will not be a quiet month.