ONCE again, there is chaos on the streets in Islamabad and beyond. There are people on the roads, communications and life have been disrupted and there is very little information on the news channels.

And then, we have two very loud sides to the story — one which feels it has won with people’s power, and the other which tells us only the house wins because it always has. That both are still locked in a never-ending struggle is accepted by neither side.

Even Hollywood is willing to accept the end of a good idea and let popular and long-running shows conclude, but not us. For us, there is never too much of a good or bad thing. And so it is with politics.

So here we are with our longest-running soap — the opposition on the roads and the government doing what it does best, ie, pretending it is watching over a functional state and economy. But there are some differences, it seems. Not because the scriptwriters have decided to add a few original touches but because the country and the world have changed.

So on the one hand, there is a party in the opposition which has reaped the benefits of demographic changes, and on the other, we have older, tired parties, which have been at it for too long.

The powers that be seem to have evolved as much as the country and the people have.

The young in PTI think they have discovered people’s power for the first time and can change history by taking to the streets. These young supporters (more than the PTI politicians) have not just kept the party alive and thriving but also appear to be the ones taking to the streets without being led. Their belief in themselves and the leader they have anointed doesn’t require the second-tier leadership as such.

The second-tier leaders or politicians in this party are like the loyal best friend in Bollywood coming-of-age romances. Their only job is to provide a bit of emotional and logistical support to the star-crossed lovers. At best, they can gain popularity à la Arshad Warsi’s character Circuit to Sanjay Dutt’s Munna Bhai, but that’s about it. The real and lasting relationship is between Imran Khan and the people. The protests on Sunday made this evident when people put up a power show.

At the other end are the PPP and PML-N — out of sync with the changing world. They struggle to connect with the people and modern communication strategies. As a result, they are now more dependent on the establishment than on the people.

Or it could just be that they are too exhausted for yet another bout after having struggled for decades. Indeed, long bouts weaken every party. Simply consider the PPP, which lost Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and his daughter since its formation. And by now, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari is more a king-in-waiting than a people’s leader like his mother was. What else can explain his latest interest in the constitutional court?

The N, on the other hand, has also taken indifference to politics to a new level. The capital may have been overrun, but the N part of the government doesn’t care.

They were missing in action as the situation rapidly deteriorated, with the interior minister, who also looks after cricket, being the face of the government as Islamabad went into lockdown mode.

Was the government simply distancing itself or being kept away? The rumoured explanations are many — the party is wary of the bad rep it is earning; the powers that be are tired of it; a third one even suggests the party is simply not happy with the cabinet choices imposed on it.

But this crisis apart, the Noonies seem to be wary of politics in general. They haven’t bothered with the art and science of this animal since they took power back in 2022. They seem to have conceded defeat and settled down to a listless life of power (and very little governance) with a dash of ‘mujhe kyun nikala’ thrown in occasionally to excite journalists.

The fault, though, might not lie with the political parties alone. The powers that be seem to have evolved as much as the country and the people have. There is little interest, it seems, in acquiring friends and allies. ‘Masters, not Friends’ is a worthy title for a book on the present times.

The aim is to push ahead with the centralisation of power and decision-making without direct intervention; there is no longer even an attempt to camouflage the effort though it is proving far harder than anyone realises. It took a Herculean effort to manage the election, but it seems that it wasn’t enough. And now the numbers in parliament have to be managed to manage the judges.

And the judges aren’t operating in a vacuum. Some of them prove intractable because the economy and demography mean the pushback from the people continues to be there. Each defiant judge encourages the people, and the people’s noise provides an impetus to the judges. And this is not just about the PTI but others also, such as the Baloch.

Sadly, all this has simply made those at the top dig in harder. What else would one call the effort to sabotage the transition in the Supreme Court, by pushing for a constitutional amendment?

And constantly ramping up tensions with the party governing KP, where the situation is further complicated because of the security situation? The mysterious disappearance of Chief Minister Ali Gandapur is a case in point. That this disappearance appears to have coincided with the notification to ban the PTM will send but one message to a key province.

On such days, one yearns not just for the political parties to do politics but also the good old days when other institutions would indulge in good old-fashioned politics rather than simply use the hammer for every nail.

The writer is a journalist.

Published in Dawn, October 8th, 2024