Many of us had hoped that the general election earlier this year would bring to the country some kind of stability and calm. This has not happened. Instead, a continued flow of rumours and conjecture fills the air. It comes through social media, particularly X (previously known as Twitter), despite the apparent ban placed on it by the authorities.

The propagation takes many forms: that there will very soon be a new government put in place by external powers; that there will be a new election in the weeks and months to come; that the head of a particular party will dissolve his government to make way for these elections; that there would be reconciliation between the warring political parties and the creation of a national government. We have no way of knowing what is true and what is simply the creation of imagination and ideas. But we do know that all of this creates greater uncertainty and a greater feeling of instability within the country.

The sudden creation of new programmes in Punjab by its new chief minister adds to the conjecture that she knows what may be coming next. But of course, it is impossible to predict events in Pakistan. All we can say for now is that the uncertainty does not help the country at all. It hurts badly in so many ways that it is difficult to say where we are headed and how we will move forward.

In the first place, the most important aspect of all, the economy, cannot find a stable footing unless there is some degree of calm and a........

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