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Amid political instability and deep economic crisis, the Pakistan political class is still pushing their vested interests resulting in chaos in the country.
There is an old saying that politicians don't care about the people in Pakistan and their actions in the past couple of weeks prove the point as protecting their narrow political interest has pushed the country to a breaking point, Dawn reported. Amid the cash crunch, the coalition government led by Pakistan Muslim League-N and the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf have taken their fights to the streets, without giving much attention to inflation and even democracy. No wonder then, that neither the IMF nor the so-called 'friendly countries' appear very interested in helping Pakistan back from the brink of an imminent default. In such a situation, Pakistan is waiting for a much-needed USD 1.1 billion tranche of funding from the Washington-based global money lender, the International Monetary Fund, according to Dawn. In such a climate, hearing about growing 'divisions' within the military and the judiciary along political lines does not come as much of a surprise - it is after all merely a reflection of the polarisation that has already taken place in the social fabric at large. Nor is it surprising to see parliament and the executive becoming totally dysfunctional as the country goes under. With former prime minister Imran Khan demanding immediate elections and the ruling alliance hell-bent on delaying them, the political temperature is soaring to boiling point. "Both those in power and those in the opposition are to blame for what we are seeing today. But those in government have a greater responsibility to cool down political temperatures," says a journalist and political analyst, speaking. Sadly, he notes, the ruling coalition is "indulging in revenge politics, unleashing police action and arresting its opponents - all in the name of executing court orders". "The polarisation has reached a level where even the caretaker setup in Punjab, whose job is to make arrangements for fair polls in the province, has lost its neutrality and is now looking like an extension of the PML-N or the federal government," he notes. This does not augur well for the federal government or the upcoming elections. "Who will agree to elections under the present caretakers in Punjab? The interim government must distance itself from the coalition led by the PML-N to restore its neutrality," he argues. But at the same time, he is also critical of Khan and his party, reported Dawn. "It is unfortunate that Khan has not even once denounced the violence (by his party workers against the police). Why? He never tires of giving us examples of the rule of law from the West. Do politicians behave like this in the Western democracies he says he knows better than any fellow Pakistanis? He also has a responsibility to tone down his rhetoric." (ANI)
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