The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) is flexing its muscles to demonstrate street power to force rulers to quit government over its inability to control price hike, unemployment and increasing poverty. PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has given the call for protests and is all set to embark on an agitation movement from October 29. The PPP has demanded the government to immediately resign over its inability to reduce the prices of daily use commodities. However, if the PPP activists turn to streets, it will create further chaos in the country. At the same time, it is the responsibility of the federal government that it should not give feign indifference to the protest call made by the PPP. The PTI would be unwise to continue with its politics of showing its usual apathy to protests by opponents while the former came into power on the basis of a 126 days sit-in in the federal capital. In the past, PTI chief Imran Khan used to hold the rulers responsible for inflation but now after coming into power, he himself is making the life of a common man miserable due to his government’s inability to check price hike.
The situation demands that efforts must be made to address all the genuine concerns of the PPP. The top leadership of the PTI should come forward and engage the PPP in talks for peaceful resolution of all issues causing conflict in the state and society. The government has already facing the backlash of a protest march by a religious party and if it deems PPP’s fresh protest call as mere bombast, there may be nothing but chaos in the country. On its part, the PPP chairman needs to demonstrate some patience and adopt a peaceful way of protest instead of endangering the country’s already fragile security and economy. Any protest that may turn violent – keeping large, impassioned crowds peaceful can be a tad tricky at times — is not in the interests of the country. Nobody should try to derail the system because the masses become the ultimate suffers of the misadventures of politicians. All political parties should focus on tackling the challenges faced by the country and its people in a rational manner.
