WITH the Lahore High Court opening the door to parliament for the PTI, could we finally see politics return to the floor of the National Assembly and away from the streets? One certainly hopes so. The long-drawn and bitterly contested stand-off over a timeline for elections has triggered violent reactions and counter-reactions between the citizenry and the state. Innocent citizens have been hurt, economically and otherwise, due to the unending political free-for-all over these past few months. Those who pushed the fight out of parliament and into the public domain must be held accountable one day. For now, it is important that they take a step back and let the fight be moved back to where it should always have been fought. It may be tempting to point the finger at the PTI leadership for escalating matters towards a showdown between the citizenry and state, but the role of this government can also not be ignored.

Earlier this year, when PTI lawmakers decided to withdraw their resignations from the National Assembly, they should have been allowed to return. Instead, the NA Speaker did what he had refused to do for the better part of a year: he immediately accepted the resignations en masse, without individually verifying them. The government had described this glaring U-turn as a `masterstroke`. What followed was a public agitation movement that culminated in the events of May 9. Thousands of PTI supporters have since been picked up by police. It is feared that juveniles are among those being detained by the state.

Rights activists have pointed out that many arrests seem purely arbitrary and questioned why detainees are not being produced before a magistrate, as is their legal right.

Political battles cannot always be fought on the streets. The results speak for themselves The state faces a fresh wave of hatred and discontent from the citizenry; the PTI finds itself cornered; and the PDM and its allied parties have lost whatever moral high ground they had. The PTI`s return to parliament may just be what is needed to allow the system to breathe. The party is eagerly planning its parliamentary strategy; the government must welcome the challenge. Lastly, it is disappointing to note that Imran Khan`s disdain for parliament seems not to have changed one bit. He has said he will not be returning with his party to the Assembly because the forum has `lost its political and legislative relevance`. That may or may not be true, but isn`t it also his responsibility, as a former prime minister and elected representative of the people, to work to restore it from within? It is high time that he started to rethink the attitudes that led him and his government into trouble in the first place.