Crystal Ball

Can the inherently contradictory PDM components become an alliance formidable enough to oust the PTI government?

If one thing in Pakistan is believed unanimously today, it is that the country is embroiled in a plethora of crises. However, this consensus is sans any afterthought about where this trajectory might lead us, whether it is a tunnel that leads us to light — or to an abyss. The outbreak of the pandemic may have made matters worse, or, perhaps it has worked to the government’s advantage, having given it some breathing time, a buffer period to undo, rethink and redo what it may have been doing wrong. The PM has himself admitted the multiple crises the country is riven by — for which the opposition lays the blame on the PTI government. Among these, a natural gas crisis, a power crisis, and a rapidly mounting cost of living, exacerbated by Covid-related growing unemployment — all of which cannot fail to engender rising hostility towards the incumbent government. The PM, in turn, blames the opposition for wholescale corruption and the gift of circular debt which he maintains is the root cause of all the problems. Against this backdrop, the government has embarked on its third year of rule. So, given past indicators and the shadows on the wall, what lies ahead for Pakistan?