The Chief Justice and the Supreme Court (SC) may have given Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) a modicum of face saving in the Chief of the Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa’s extension case, but the party still has to pick up the pieces of its politics and move forward. The party’s gross incompetence stands bare; its cabinet’s inadequacy has been exposed; and everyone – from the opposition, to the judiciary and even the military – have directed their ire at only one group; the PTI cabinet.
In such dire circumstances one would have expected Imran Khan to take honest stock of the situation, do some introspection and seek to improve his performance. Alas! We expect too much. In the aftermath of the extension fiasco the Prime Minister has wheeled out the same dead horse he had been flogging for years now – the corrupt opposition. It is as if the Prime Minister has nothing more to say about domestic politics, no insights to give, no leadership to demonstrate. Be it climate, the economy, infrastructure, healthcare, or education – the Prime Minister can only rail against opposition corruption. It is a dispiriting sight to see; a dynamic national leader being reduced to a broken record player.
This recent tirade is the most egregious of all. The opposition had nothing at all to do with the whole incident; one wonders how corruption factors in. The Supreme Court took a suo moto notice of a blatant disregard of procedure by the Prime Minister and his team, who got verbally shredded in the courtroom for their incompetence. The opposition was nowhere in sight – they weren’t even advocating for the extension to be declared invalid. They only stood at the sidelines and marveled at the government’s spectacular lack of ability; as did the rest of the nation.
No, the opposition is not to be blamed, and no, the Law Ministry did not do a “remarkable job”. The Prime Minister must show some self-awareness, and stop lashing out at the opposition at every chance - the nation can see through it now.