If there ever was a Catch-22 situation, it is now. The ruling party PMLN doesn’t want change for the obvious reason that it is ruling.
Its boss Mian Nawaz Sharif has plans to carry on and on and on till he thinks it is time to ‘abdicate’ in his daughter’s favour. There are other potential crown princes too in the family.
MNS knows if he is out of power he will run out of favours of Lady Good Fortune too. He has not only his power to defend, he has also a huge fortune to defend too— fortune that he owes to his power. What else is all that hue and cry regarding Panama Leaks about?
As for the Pakistan People’s Party, the ANP, the JUI, and the other declared or clandestine allies of the PMLN, they are beneficiaries of the system that has produced MNS, and will always hate to endanger this system, by allowing MNS’s government to be destabilized or toppled.
In the mainstream opposition there is only one political party that matters— the PTI.
Sheikh Rasheed is a one-man show. There are Chaudhries too.
The only party that is really yearning and looking for change is the PTI.
But change in this country has come only one way. I have experienced very moment of change in our political history— from the 7th and then 27th of October 1958 to 25th of March 1969, to 5th of July 1977 to 12th of October 1999. In between there was change in August 1990, July 1993, and November 1996.
In each case the man in uniform with stick in his hand was either the agent of change or arbiter.
In our political culture, to think of change through constitutional means is foolhardiness of the highest order.
Everyone knows it, except my friend Imran Khan. The day he realizes, he has to postpone his ‘revolutionary agenda’ for some years, if he wants this system toppled, his agony will be over.
If there is really any change on the pattern of each change that occurred in the past, the only political survivor’s name will be Imran Khan. He will stand a great chance of becoming Pakistan’s Chief Executive in 2021.
It is really a Catch-22 situation……
