Imran should hold his horses

No media organisation has the right to dictate what strategies or policies a political party ought to adopt to advance its ideology or gain popularity. If any criticism has to be offered in this regard, it should be within the parameters of national interests and constitutional requirement. With this understanding the following lines are offered regarding the stances taken by PTI chief Imran Khan regarding peace talks with the Tehrik Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Recently, the PTI chief has threatened that if the federal government did not talk with the Taliban, his party\'s government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) would begin the dialogue; secondly, that if drone attacks did not stop, his party would prevent Nato trucks from passing through KP. His well-publicised and as much well- criticised outrageous demand for office for the terrorists in Islamabad is also not to be forgotten. Imran should consider the scenario if and when a district or tehsil or a village government in KP forcibly, instead of legally, stops work on a project approved by the province or obstruct the provincial government officials from carrying out their duties. Would it not be chaotic if that happens in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and would not the provincial government consider the act of the local government\'s elected officials as mutiny; even, though the action would be against the authorities of a unit of the federation and not against the federal authorities. It was legally allowed and politically correct to organise demonstrations and sit-ins against Nato supplies when the PTI was not in government. But if the party\'s government in KP tries to stop trucks allowed by Islamabad or if it tries to make peace with the enemies of Pakistan on the provincial level without the consent and participation of the federal government, it will be interfering in the legal functions of the centre and exceeding its mandate which is limited only to provincial matters. While The Frontier Post has time and against expressed extreme opposition and revulsion to drone attacks, it also opposes illegal obstruction to carrying out the orders or any activity generally allowed by any legitimate and relevant authority in Pakistan. This paper holds the view that if a law has been incorrectly implemented, the proper forum to correct the situation is court and if the law itself seems unjust to anybody, the proper forum to amend or completely change or erase it is the relevant assembly. As such if the PTI government either interrupts the Nato supplies against the will of the central government or starts talks with Taliban without the centre\'s consent, it will tantamount to pitting the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa against the federation; it will be usurping the constitutional mandate of the federal government and at this stage this country cannot afford constitutional crises. This paper has been a severe critic of the Nawaz Sharif government because if its anti-poor economic policies but what Imran Khan is proposing goes beyond opposing the PML-N setup in the centre; rather, his threats if acted upon will negatively effect the state of Pakistan and this is unbearable. The PTI chief\'s stance on the issue of office for TTP in Pakistan is well-known and so is the criticism of it. Suffice to say that what Imran Khan was asking by demanding an office for the militants amounted to legitimizing the status of the miscreants. Without doubt PTI has become political force to reckon with and the credit for creating such a popular party out of nothing goes solely to Imran Khan. His tactics and strategies of the past have resulted in winning enough seats in the KP assembly to form a government in the province. Having said that, Khan and his party has to come out of the election mode. The PTI government should be concentrating more on the issues facing the unfortunate people of KP who have given the party enough votes to rule the province. The law and order situation, minus the acts of terrorism, has not improved and by some accounts has deteriorated in KP. There has been no purging of the corrupt officials in the provincial government; rather, there have been accusations and in fact undeniable instances of nepotism and favouritism in the province. It is true that most of the raise in prices has been because of the policies of Islamabad, the PTI provincial government, however, has not been able to control the unjustified upward surge in prices in the retail market. The education service in the government and private schools and colleges, health service in government and private hospitals; traffic in almost all parts of the province; supply of clean drinking water, irrigation, and sanitations in cities, towns and villages are as bad, if not worse, as when the PTI government took over. PTI setup should have improved the situation in KP so markedly and showcased it for the people in other provinces to see. However, instead of proving to the people of KP that PTI\'s win in polls is well-deserved, the PTI leader and the PTI administration are meddling in matters that are under the jurisdiction of Islamabad. This attitude does not augur well either for the province or the country.