Dec 13 came by and went. PDM was supposed to hold a jalsa, and it happened. The event was supposed to be held at 5PM but some ministers had already declared it a ‘failure’ by noon. What could be an even bigger ‘failure’ that the government has to replace the interior minister before the rally when it was happening the prime minister released a picture with his two pet dogs, and when it concluded the foreign minister pushed politics aside and gave a briefing on external relations?
The real threat is not from India, but from within. What’s wrong if Shah Mehmood Qureshi is giving a helping handing to the information minister? The next day the federal cabinet held a five-hour-long session. According to reports, the only agenda was the PDM’s political gathering. If the jalsa had indeed failed, then why was it discussed for five hours in a cabinet meeting? Maybe they pondered over their mistake which led to this failure? Or perhaps they were deliberating some elaborate plan on how to deal with the implication of this ‘failure’? The latter seems to be rather true.
The government seems to form a committee for negotiations. The committee will comprise of those who will be raising the “Negotiation, please” slogan. This is the same prime minister who stated “I will not negotiate with these looters, I will imprison all of them.” Now these ‘looters’ don’t want dialogue and they are desperately forming committees for negotiations. Why? Because the Lahore jalsa was a huge failure? Obviously if the jalsa was somehow a ‘success’, they wouldn’t have replaced their minister, held five-hour-long meetings, or bothered to form any committee? Perhaps it’s the government’s misfortune that the jalsa was a ‘failure’.
The only question remains is whether the end near or farther? It is uncertain. There is only one reason. Because the jalsa was a ‘failure’.
As soon as the meeting started, the prime minister summoned reports from everyone about the jalsa. Every minister narrated the same thing they have been repeating away on TV. ‘All is well,’ the premier was assured. But the prime minister was not satisfied. “This is not ARY’s studio, it’s a session of the federal cabinet. So tell me the exact situation and exact numbers”. The cabinet members kept repeating the same narrative agains. So the prime minister summoned intelligence briefings to gain the ‘real reports’. Now if these said the same as TV news reports then please refer to the BBC and Al-Jazeera’s ‘misleading’ reports.
Why those ‘who are on the same page’ with them did not give the real reports? If the prime minister had received it early on, it would have saved him the hassle of summoning from others? Has the ‘one page’ split into two parts and each page is now on its own? Another question is why did the PDM defer announcing its promised grand plan at the Lahore jalsa? Why did the ‘patriotic’ Mustafa Kamal suddenly come on TV and made the same assertions which the PDM had on the day of the elections? Is he not ‘patriotic’ anymore or he was sending a signal? If so, then there are many MNAs who would never miss the opportunity to prove their ‘patriotism’.
The only question remains is whether the end near or farther? This is an atmosphere of uncertainty. And there is only one reason. Because the jalsa was a ‘failure’. If this wasn’t a ‘failure’ then the government would be dancing to the Chinese flute, Sheikh Rasheed would be doing the accounting of railway bogies, Qureshi would be shuffling files at the foreign ministry, and the prime minister wouldn’t be searching for the ‘real report’.
