Country on edge.

THE country is tearing itself apart. With politics being conducted with unprecedented venom and vitriol, there is constant danger that someone, somewhere, will make a grave mistake. Even a momentary lapse of judgement could trigger a series of events that could cause irrevocable damage to the country. Yet, as the political climate grows increasingly febrile, the federal government, the caretaker set-up in Punjab as well as the PTI leadership continue to show a dangerous and disturbing lack of responsibility in their conduct. As the parties currently in power, the greater burden lies with the PML-N and the caretaker government in Punjab.

They ought to be demonstrating restraint, yet, both either continue to provoke the PTI's already paranoid leadership or repeatedly go overboard in the exercise of their authority. The Lahore and Islamabad administrations' actions last week suggest that PTI vs PML-N is no longer being viewed simply as politics, but as an all-out turf war. What do they want? Do they really think that unleashing the state's force on what, at least at the moment, appears to be the most popular political party in the country is a way out of the mess they have steered the country towards? At this critical juncture, does Pakistan really need another crop of young...