HERE is little hope for the future if we must insist on remaining hung up on the past. The pound of flesh taken this year from the people of Pakistan due to persistent economic and political instability ought to have provided the impetus for a concerted push for national unity. It has become clear that without a common purpose, it is well-nigh impossible to deal with both a global crisis and a crippling national disaster. Instead, leaders on both sides of the political divide continue to stoke tensions and refuse to set aside their personal vendettas so that they may focus on the future.

It can be said without reservation that nearly every party and political leader has committed several major blunders over their electoral history. Throwing a new lot of politicians in jail every few years based on such mistakes may give their rivals satisfaction, but it does not serve the country. Nobody knows this better than PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif and his daughter, Maryam Nawaz. The latter, in particular, suffered the courts for years before the cases against her recently crumbled to dust. This brings us to the latest case against former prime minister Imran Khan and other PTI leaders based on the allegation that they submitted forged documents and received prohibited funding. It smacks of revenge for the victimisation of PML-N and PPP leaders in the recent past. Its fate is expected to be the same as the fate of all political cases in the past.

Is it not time we realised it is madness to keep repeating mistakes and expect different results? It has not been forgotten how bitter and toxic the national discourse became under the PTI, nor should the party be forgiven just yet for corrupting politics by encouraging personal attacks and resorting to abrasive slander, treating any difference of opinion with derision and contempt, and provoking the youth to act on their basest instincts rather than grooming them to be future leaders. But if the bitterness and toxicity are here to stay, if it has been internalised and repurposed by the people supposed to represent the antithesis of PTPs politics, what hope can the citizens of this country have? What sense is there in keeping them perpetually divided in a fruitless political war with each other? The PDM parties pride themselves on being the system`s stalwarts; for contributing to Pakistani democracy and midwifing it through multiple crises. Does their acquired wisdom teach them that this is the best path back to popularity? If the PDM wants to win in the polls, it needs to provide people with better reasons to side with it because settling personal scores does not engender much loyalty. It needs to keep its focus on reviving the economy, not finding new ways to persecute its rival force.