The PPP doesn’t want to rock the boat and openly confront the military, which plays a decisive role in Pakistan’s decision-making process. Also, sacrificing its government in Sindh and asking its lawmakers to quit their seats in line with the PDM decision cannot be easy, even though the party leadership managed to get resignations from all of them by the December 31, 2020 deadline. However, the resignations are still with the PPP high command and no decision has been taken on when to present them to the respective speakers of the national and four provincial assemblies, as required by law and constitution.

While the PPP is still part of the PDM and has been reiterating its pledge to abide by the collective decisions of the alliance, suspicions about its intentions are on the rise. There have been unsubstantiated media reports that the PTI government is considering offering concessions to the PPP in the corruption cases filed against Bilawal’s father Asif Ali Zardari, the spouse of the late Benazir Bhutto and former president of Pakistan. The government is also making efforts to exploit the differences in the PDM and in some of its component parties, including Maulana Fazlur Rahman’s JUI-F, which recently suffered a split when four of its senior leaders revolted against the Maulana for practising dynastic politics. They were promptly expelled from the party and are now busy forming a breakaway faction to be known as JUI Pakistan.

Despite its internal differences, the PDM has continued to hold public rallies to maintain pressure on the Imran Khan government. It is also hoping to benefit from the grouping in the PTI, particularly during the upcoming election for 52 of the 104 Senate seats that, despite the government’s efforts, would have to be held though secret rather than open ballot. The PDM also staged a protest on January 19 outside the Election Commission of Pakistan in Islamabad, against the delay in the proceedings against the PTI in the so-called foreign funding case. The opposition has alleged that the PTI and Imran Khan received and misused funds from donors abroad, including the US. The case is with the Election Commission, but has taken a long time to make a decision. The PTI has rejected the allegations against it, in the case that was filed by a former senior member of the party.

The government had announced earlier that the PDM would be allowed to organise the protest rally outside the Election Commission office. even though it is located in the ‘Red Zone’ where protests are banned. However, the government warned that action would be taken if the protestors took the law into their hands. The protestors, led by Maulana Fazlur Rahman, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz (who is vice-president of the PML-N), former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf (who belongs to the Bhuttos-led PPP) and other leaders of the component parties, remained peaceful.

All this while the government had to cope with widespread protests by Shias in major urban centres. These were held in solidarity with the Hazara community, which held a sit-in for several days in Quetta, along with the bodies of the ten coalminers who were brutally killed in a night-time attack in the Bolan district of Balochistan. ISIS, or Daesh, which is avowedly anti-Shia, claimed responsibility for the attack, as it did all previous such assaults, even though its affiliate, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, due to its visible presence in Balochistan, was actually behind this act of terrorism. The prime minister also landed himself in trouble by making an insensitive statement that he cannot be ‘blackmailed’ into visiting Quetta to console the grieving families. He finally paid a visit to Quetta when the bodies had been buried, as demanded by him, and offered condolences to the victims’ families.

Meanwhile, other pressing issues also need the beleaguered PTI government’s attention. The depressing economic situation, the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, continuing terrorist attacks by TTP and Baloch separatists against security personnel and pro-government elders, the burning down of the shrine of a Hindu saint by a Muslim mob in Karak district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and the assault on a Sikh gurdwara in Nankana Sahib in Punjab have all kept the government poised to defuse the situations. The PDM’s anti-government agitation is also a major cause of concern, and February and March will be crucial to watch, to see if the opposition alliance will fall apart under the weight of its differences, or whether the government will buckle under the pressure. For the time being, though, the government is confident in overcoming the PDM challenge.