National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf has spilled the beans behind PTI chief Imran Khan’s brand of politics by disclosing that he has been contacted by PTI MNAs who had resigned, but who told him that they had resigned under pressure, and that he should not accept their resignations. The scorched-earth brand of politics by Mr Khan, ever since he responded to the vote of no-confidence against him by mass resignations by PTI MNAs, seems to be coming unstuck. Raja Pervaiz, while talking to the press on Saturday, disclosed that those MNAs who had resigned had not yet vacated the Parliamentary Lodges, and they still used their memberships to apply for foreign visas. Apart from the PTI’s problems with the MNAs’ resignations, the party’s MPAs in KP and Punjab do not seem to have responded enthusiastically to Mr Khan’s announcement that he would dissolve the Punjab and KP Assemblies.
While KP CM Mahmood Khan has laid the condition that Punjab CM Ch Pervez Elahi must advise dissolution first, the latter has hinted that there will be no dissolution till March. Mr Khan has tried two Long Marches, a series of public rallies, and has even appealed to the establishment to intervene, so as to get early elections, all without success. Now all that is left is for him, like Samson, to pull all down upon him, no matter what the cost. The backchannel that seems to have developed between President Arif Alvi and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar needs conversion into Mr Khan taking more ownership of talks, with his being ready to talk. That might require him to give up his narrative of his opponents being thieves and dacoits, but that remains the only possible, but not guaranteed, path to fresh elections.
Mr Khan should also realize that time is against him. The closer the date for elections at full term comes, the less sense will his demand for a premature dissolution make. Even his supporters may well feel that waiting a couple of months is an option. Mr Khan may find that he has even less time than he thinks, as the present government looks to passing the next Budget. If he does not get a dissolution very soon, he will find that he is not going to get one at all. The only path of an early dissolution is through talks, and that will only be possible if he gets off his high horse and talks to his opponents.
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