It seems both the government and opposition are making all out efforts to become the primary party in parliament that best represents and supports the cause of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP). The PTI had already made a mess of the situation when it agreed in writing with the TLP to bring the matter of the French Ambassador’s expulsion from the country to parliament a few months back for some temporary reprieve, only to backtrack on the promise completely. The violent nationwide protests that followed forced the government to make good on its word and a special National Assembly session was held in this regard on Tuesday where the opposition thoroughly lambasted the government over its response to the unrest. The remainder of the debate was scheduled to be held on Friday, but the government refused to table the resolution, deciding to send it to a NA standing committee, leading to the opposition creating a ruckus, staging a walkout and chanting trademark TLP slogans, in an obvious attempt to pander to its voter base and paint the government as their enemy. That the PPP, once considered a party with the most secular credentials of the lot, initiated and led the sloganeering is highly condemnable. The PML-N lost much of its religious voter base in the 2018 general elections to the TLP and were therefore not far behind in trying to regain some of that electorate as well.
While the three major political parties of the country squabble for scraps, the TLP is singing all the way to the bank as FIRs are cancelled, arrested rioters released from custody and its demands are met. Since PTI took power, parliament has been treated as a battleground between the opposition and treasury benches and is only taken seriously when the government has to bulldoze an important self-serving piece of legislation. This wave of religiously charged mob violence does not bode well for a country already in the grips of extremism that typically evolves into domestic terrorism. When such a serious problem arises it is the duty of all elected representatives to unite and find a way forward towards rational disengagement rather than adding fuel to the fire. Unfortunately, politics has taken precedence over any such logical positive outcome.
