Opposition parties are gearing up for a possible campaign against Pakistan Tehreek e Insaaf (PTI) government.
Jamiat Ulema e Islam (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazal ur Rehman is leading the effort to coalesce opposition parties on a platform.
He has extended the invitation to opposition groups and some government partners for a moot on June 26 tagged All Parties Conference (APC). Maulana- an astute politician has been making these efforts since last year’s general elections. His efforts could not bear fruit because the major opposition parties had different stakes in the system.
The arrest of top leadership of the two main opposition parties- Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)- former President Asif Ali Zardari and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, on corruption charges, had brought the formal rivals on the same page. This has prompted other opposition groups to join hands against what these groups call; witch-hunt by the regime.
It is premature to say what would be the outcome of the APC, but this is for sure that these parties would try their best to put pressure on the government to secure some relief for the arrested leaders. They would also try to get relief for others whose cases are being pursued by the disputed accountably watch-dog National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
The other issue on which opposition parties castigate the incumbent government is rapid price hike, inflation, and the dwindling economy. The economy-related issues deserve merit and should be discussed. Same is the case of instituting a transparent accountability mechanism in the country.
These are the issues on which not only the opposition parties should hold a series of huddles, but all the stakeholders must sit together for a greater cause.
In our political history, the political leaders have hardly ever made any effort to go deep into real issues of the masses. They have always done politics on parochial issues. Oppositions all over the world criticize the sitting governments. In our case when in opposition, our politicians criticize the government for the sake of criticism. The ruling party does the same to the opposition. No one gives an alternate roadmap.
No doubt the country needs a credible accountability system and reforms in all major sectors. Steering the country out of the economic mess is the most important and immediate task. Ever increasing debt trap is noxious for the country’s existence.
After securing a new bailout of $ 3 billion this time from Qatar Pakistan has received around $ 16 billion loans from the friendly countries in just one year. Despite all this inflow, country’s foreign currency reserves stand at only $ 7.6 billion a week back. In addition, the present regime has obtained loans of $ 6 billion from different other multilateral lenders.
Country’s 41 percent budget goes in debt payments now and this ratio is increasing day by day. This is high time for political leadership to come up with a nonpartisan road map to steer the country from an abysmal economic situation.
