Sohail Warraich, a prominent journalist, has said that the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) has failed to achieve what it wanted to. “They [PDM] have postponed both their idea to resign from the assemblies and to initiate a long march to topple the government,” he said. He was speaking to Shahzeb Khanzada on Geo News show Aj Shahzeb Khanzada k sath.
Another prominent journalist Saleem Safi also agreed with Warraich and maintained that “Asif Ali Zardari appears to have dominated all others in the PDM”. He also pointed out that there seems to be no reason that the PDM is united but appears to be under the control of Asif Zardari and Nawaz Sharif.
Analysts have already opined that the PDM does not appear to have a future. Ayaz Amir, a prominent Pakistani political commentator who regularly appears on Dunya TV, has said that the PDM does not have a future. “I am unable to understand their [PDM’s] agenda and program. What do they really want?,” he asked.
Mr. Amir also highlighted the failing state of the economy in Pakistan. “Pakistan’s economic condition is not stable and you expect people to support a narrative which has no practical appeal. PDM’s narrative is only for the elites running this movement,” he maintained.
While narrating the impact of Maryam’s speeches, Amir pointed out that “had the public been with PML-N, people would have come out and stood by Maryam”. “We see it did not happen because there is no serious talk about people,” he said. “Let’s admit the fact that the PDM has no momentum,” he concluded.
Hasan Askari Rizvi, a political analyst who served as Chief Minister of Punjab duriKhan’s government in the 2018 polls, said during a talk-show on Dunya TV that “the movement will likely involve more rhetoric than action”. Dr. Rizvi was of the view that the opposition parties won’t be able to stay united as many of them have “competing and contradictory interests”.
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There is also an opinion that the opposition is likely to fail due to an obvious that it has no anti-government plan. “The opposition will not be able to sell out its narrative. Khan’s government has a success story when it comes to Foreign Relations, it has an exemplary performance when it comes to defeating COVID-19, and Khan’s speeches at the UN made him a hero,” a senior bureaucrat told GVS. The officer was of the view that the opposition could set the agenda on high inflation but that is insufficient to shape an anti-government narrative when the current government seems to have done more than its capacity.
PML-N wants to hold talks with Establishment?
The Opposition’s relationship with the government has been patchy since the time PM Khan assumed the office. However, the situation got intense after corruption cases against the Sharif and Zardari families were filed in the courts. An All Parties Conference (APC) was called in Islamabad on September 20 where Nawaz Sharif, former prime minister, addressed the participants and slammed the country’s establishment for political engineering.
However, after holding some rallies and speaking against the armed forces of Pakistan, PML-N seems to be desperate to hold talks with the establishment.
On November 12, PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz said that her party is willing to hold talks with the military establishment, however, only under the condition that the PTI government is shown the door. Her remarks came during an interview with BBC Urdu.
After Maryam Nawaz’s demand to the establishment to step in for a “Charter of Democracy”, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, a senior leader of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), has asked the judiciary to help politicians initiate a national dialogue to let democracy flourish in the country.
Khawaja Asif was speaking to Asma Shirazi of AAJ News when he suggested the judiciary to play a role in order to end the ongoing anti-government protests under the flag of the PDM.
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Political analysts are of the view that the PML-N leadership failed to generate public support for its anti-army narrative which has now forced it to hold talks with the establishment. “PML-N did not get the expected support from the PPP leadership. The game seems to be over now,” a reliable source in PML-N told GVS.