FEB 8 has come and gone. The post-poll rigging and smoky backroom deals will carry on for some time. The frenzied wheeling and dealing will then give way to the new (read: old) status quo. Or maybe there will be even more chaos because a viable power-sharing agreement cannot be fomented. And then someone in a uniform, or a suitable proxy, will save us in the name of national security.
Indeed, the more things change, the more they stay the same. As one of its last gifts, the so-called caretaker government has approved a 45 per cent hike in gas prices to assure the IMF that working people will continue to be sacrificed.
Then again, it is reductive to say that nothing has changed. Much has been said about the ‘rebellion’ against the establishment by mostly young voters who ostensibly don’t have very much hope in systemic change but are certainly wise enough to disrupt the powers that be and the so-called ‘greater national interest’.
But this will not stop our self-proclaimed guardians from doing what they do, and our mainstream politicians will generally comply. Supporters of the PML-N, PPP, PTI or the other (smaller) usual suspects can decry their opponents’ nominees for prime, chief or other ministerial/ governor........