The ballot roulette.

An electoral roulette is around the corner. It seems the fragile political set-up is once again gearing for bye-polls. This time around there isn't any enthusiasm and the pattern of legal process too is weird. It pertains to nine seats that fell vacant in the National Assembly, and that too at the prerogative of accepting selective resignations from the en-bloc stand-downs submitted by PTI in April. The coalition government, apparently, has a political ploy behind it as it wants to buck up its wafer-thin strength on the floor of the house by bagging a few more, and sustain the order till the parliamentary tenure next year. But the PTI is swift to counter the move, as its demand pertains to general elections and not bye-polls.

The surprise decision from former Prime Minister Imran Khan to contest all the nine seats himself has literally torpedoed the Machiavellian move of the government. That means a clean sweep on all the seats will once again lead to resignations, thus putting the ballgame to square-one. It is not surprising to believe in the PTI strategy, as it sits at the zenith of its popularity, and its narrative for a new elected order is gaining momentum.

To further compound the mosaic, PTI has also knocked on...