It is time to heal up and reconcile. It is time to forgive and forget. It is time to abjure negative politics and turn away from revenge taking. The country has already suffered much from the politics of gripe and confrontation which the major political parties have pursued over the last many years.

In this war of attrition, political parties have lost the trust and respect of the people. Due to political instability, the economy is in a mess, requiring continuous bailouts from the IMF, a nostrum which has not worked.

The PTI has tried all tactics to challenge and remove the government from power and failed. Other opposition parties are in disarray and not in a position to take on the powers that be. The ruling parties sit pretty, enjoying the perks and privileges of power. They have compromised all principles in the pursuit of power. But the present deadlock is leading to the systematic dismantlement of state apparatus and weakening of various institutions responsible for implementing the social contract with the people. The present situation is one of doom and gloom calling for immediate remedial action. The status quo is palpably unsustainable and needs serious re-thinking by all concerned, especially those holding the reins of power.

From time to time sane voices from the ruling and opposition parties have pleaded for a spirit of compromise and accommodation to rescue Pakistan from a steadily worsening crisis. But they are not being heeded. Senior PML-N leader Rana Sanaullah said a few days ago that if the supremos of all three major political parties — PTI, PML-N and PPP — sat together for negotiations, the crisis that the country has been embroiled in for 70 years would be solved within 70 days.

To quote him, “We, the politicians, should sit together. The problem is that before we sit down, it is very important that the mistakes that were made by the people who are sitting down are accepted.” He said that two documents — the 1973 Constitution and the charter of democracy — were important political guiding lights. In the charter of democracy, both leaders — PPP’s Benazir Bhutto and PML-N’s Nawaz Sharif — accepted their mistakes and then the conversation moved forward.

“We do want to make them [negotiations] successful with complete sincerity,” Sanaullah said, adding that if “today’s grievances are to be accepted then yesterday’s should also be accepted”. Sanaullah said that his party had always called for negotiations to solve the political problems since negotiations were the only way to move forward and solve the issues.

Unfortunately, the negotiation process that started between the ruling party and the PTI in January collapsed without any outcome. The reasons for this failure are many but a major one is that the respective party chiefs were not part of the process. It has been rightly said that both Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan are not playing the role they could at this critical juncture in history. Both are prisoners of their own self-belief and inflated egos. While Nawaz is playing politics in the shadows, watching his daughter ruling Punjab, Imran Khan is not ready to come down from his maximalist position, learning little from history.

Lately, the PTI has been trying to cobble together a grand opposition alliance to challenge the incumbent government. In this connection, the opposition has announced a two-day conference in Islamabad in the coming weeks to discuss politics and other national issues. No ruling party has been invited, even though the rationale given for hosting the conference is that problems are only solved when they are discussed. Representatives of the media and lawyer and worker unions have also been invited.

The conference in its present format is unlikely to yield much beyond garnering a few headlines in the papers. It is a good opportunity to take the ruling party on board also and thus initiate the process of a grand reconciliation which alone can take the country out of the woods. The organisers should also consider inviting representatives from other power centres in the country, including the bureaucracy, the judiciary and media. They all need to sit down and find a solution to the country’s problems.

Both Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan claim to be the biggest champions of democracy and civilian supremacy. This is the common ground and goal for which they need to come together and work for. The stubbornness both of them have shown lowers their stature in the context of the discourse necessary to create a democratic polity. It is not yet too late to make amends and evolve a minimum common agenda to put the country on the road to political reconciliation and stability.