ISLAMABAD  - The fresh protest plan of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf to shut down three major cities and then whole of the country in the first half of December carries with it a peril of turning, so far, peaceful protest of PTI violent. But there is a silver lining in this grim and hopeless situation in shape of Imran Khan’s willingness to resume negotiations and the government must not let this opportunity go waste and engage them in political parleys.
As was expected Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan came up with a fresh deadline and protest plan just to keep the pressure up on the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) to get his demand of audit of 2013 General Elections on his terms and conditions accepted.
Under the fresh protest plan of Imran Khan, which he dubbed as ‘Plan C’, his party would shut down Lahore on Dec. 4, Faisalabad on Dec. 8, port city of Karachi on Dec. 12 and finally would give the call of bringing national life to a grinding halt by shutting down whole of the country on Dec. 16.
Political analysts said that the fresh protest plan has virtually pushed the things in dead alley because shutting down of cities, obviously by use of force, will be fully prone to turn violent because in an attempt to shut down the city they would have to take law into their hands and hence enter into direct clash with law enforcement agencies resulting into turning their peaceful protest violent.
However, analysts saw the willingness shown by Imran Khan at resumption of negotiations as an opening of a window to get the nation out of this quagmire and hoped that the government would take advantage of it by roping in Imran Khan in negotiations process and to get out of political imbroglio.
Some insiders in the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) said that the leaders with hawkish tendency were opposed to the resumption of negotiations and wanted to see Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf to retreat in utter frustration and humiliation. But the saner elements were of the view that the government must reopen the window of dialogue and engage PTI leadership in negotiation process to resolve the issue with a win-win position for all.
Political analysts said that with the fresh offer of dialogue from PTI Chairman Imran Khan the elements within the ranks of PML-N in support of dialogue would gain strength and likely to prevail on those averse to the negotiated settlement of the issue and wanted to teach them (Imran and his cronies) a lesson.
Though before the Nov. 30 show a number of key Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) leaders, considered close to Premier Sharif, hinted at resumption of dialogue with PTI leadership but they said that any future talks would start after Nov. 30 rally.
There is realisation in the top echelon of power that PTI sit-in and public rallies across the country pose no serious threat to government but at the same time these have left negative impact on the overall economic activity in the country especially foreign investment in the country has greatly hampered.
So in the given situation when PTI Chairman Imran Khan has shown willingness to resume negotiations, though in a threatening tone, the government should show magnanimity and resume dialogue at the earliest.