It may look like a tiny storm — Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s description of the ongoing crisis in his country wherein he is being asked to step down by two intransigent opponents — but the situation has the potential to turn into a more advanced state of inclement political weather for Pakistan if Sharif continues to treat the crisis with kid gloves. More than two weeks after Imran Khan, head of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) and the maverick cleric Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri took to the streets of the capital Islamabad, the situation in the country is more reflective of Sharif’s inability to handle it rather than the irksome adamancy of Khan. More than two weeks of parleys have not produced anything concrete except a sense of a quiet precipitation of the crisis.
Rather than mollify Khan — who clearly is using his six-point charter of demands as a fig leaf — Sharif needs to call his bluff and take control of the situation. His seemingly resolute stand that offered hope over the weekend now looks to be thoroughly compromised with the army stepping in as the mediator between the government and Khan. This is the last thing Sharif should have acquiesced to, given the army’s role in Pakistan’s political past. Rather than be seen as compromising with the spirit of democracy, Sharif must wrest back the control of the situation and thereby reiterate a crucial truth: That as a leader of a duly elected government, he has what it takes to prevent the hijacking of Pakistan’s constitutional dignity and supremacy.
