HE Pakistan Awami Tehreek and its leader Tahirul Qadri undeniably have legitimate questions and demands of the PML-N. The killing of 14 members of Mr Qadri`s organisation in June 2014 left a scar on the democratic project in Pakistan that the PML-N governments in Punjab and at the centre have done nothing to atone for. The families of the victims of the Model Town massacre have yet to be given justice. But Mr Qadri`s quixotic politics has often drifted away from a principled demand for justice and towards political machinations for decidedly less salutary reasons. The announcement on Monday by Mr Qadri that his organisation and allied political parties will seek not just the ouster of the PML-N`s governments in Punjab and at the centre but also the end of the PML-N as a political party is perhaps the clearest indication yet that Mr Qadri`s motives are undemocratic. Either Mr Qadri is seeking revenge against the Sharifs, a family he was once close to politically, or he is being encouraged by anti-democratic forces to try and destabilise the political landscape. Worryingly, the road to a historic third consecutive on-time election appears to be growing more perilous in the new year.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, but certainly disappointingly, Mr Qadri appears also to have the ear of the leaderships of mainstream political parties in the country. It is remarkable to witness Mr Qadri being courted by some of the very parties that he launched a bitter, so-called anti-corruption drive against in the last parliament. With Nawaz Sharif seemingly unwilling to tone down his rhetoric against state institutions that he alleges conspired to oust him from the prime minister`s office, it appears that the PML-N`s political rivals are gambling that lining up against the dominant political party in Punjab could help greatly diminish its electoral prospects. No party appears to remember the lessons of the 1990s when bitter infighting among the political class nudged the country onto the path of another disastrous spell of military rule. For the PML-N, the challenge remains the same: steer the country towards a general election while minimising the harm to the democratic project. The PML-N leadership has historically reacted poorly to street challenges and an authoritarian streak in the party could create a worse situation than Mr Qadri, his backers and his political allies may be able to create on their own. Calm needs to prevail in the government.