As the triumphant opposition parties' elected lawmakers streamed in to kick off the new National Assembly's inning, sitting sheepishly were the trounced PML (Q)-led coalition's handful legislators who could make it to the house, licking their wounds, mostly self-inflicted. This coalition had had every advantage to become a cohesive, homogenous and delivering entity; it frittered them all, to stay obstinately as a collection of disparate and heterogeneous elements, all assembled together by no worthy cause other than sheer opportunism, expediency and self-advancement.

Instead of coming into its own to become a powerful political voice in the corridors of power, it slavishly took to playing a mere puppet to the reigning general, doing his bidding unquestioningly, and thus making its repulsive obeisance a double-edged weapon that cut both sides ruinously and incurably. While this let the general all free to act absolutely autocratically, on the one hand, absolutely ignorant of what the people want and demand and absolutely unmindful of their raging sentiments, their driving hopes and expectations, and their pressing wants and needs, for which he now stands totally isolated, wholly disowned and disliked by the people at large.

On the other hand, with this abject servility and submissiveness to the general this coalition reduced itself into a laughing stock in the popular eye, not to be taken seriously but only to be taken for granted. It did take some initiatives like the resolution of the Balochistan imbroglio, the Lal Masjid episode and the judicial crisis through dialogue, but then dawdled and lost the steam and the grit in the midstream to carry the process to its logical conclusion, to its own great grief in the end. Worse, for their own vaulting ambitions the Chaudhrys of Gujrat foolishly embarked upon an ill-conceived adventure to hijack the coalition, especially its PML (Q) component, to carry out their own power errands and also to promote a loathsome strand of nepotism and favouritism.

To this end, they first maneuvered the elbowing out of Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali from the office of the prime minister, a patently-self defeating enterprise whose intrinsic baneful consequences they couldn't even visualise in the heat of their mad power passions. Mr. Jamali, a veteran politician as he is, would have had always a strong feel of the people's pulse, and with the political backing of the coalition would have always ventured giving a fairly decisive reflection of the popular will and aspirations to the government policies. Expediently, the Chaudhrys then manipulated his replacement by Shaukat Aziz, a career banker obsessed with balance sheets, no political animal to be a people's man. He may have given strong indictors to the economy; but he inflicted in battalions all kinds of miseries on the citizens to smite them into the worst-ever pathetic state, who in turn no lesser in rage and revenge for his atrocious deal inflicted an equally humiliating drubbing to the coalition in the poll.
To be fair, this coalition did pump enormous monies in public works. But here too it forfeited much of the public goodwill on this account by launching into obscene and prohibitively expensive paid media publicity campaigns, the money that indeed it could have well spent on the development works to earn the people's gratitude, which would have spoken up for the coalition in the people's vote. The worst sinner was none else but the Chaudhry holding the satrapy of Punjab. So irresponsibly and culpably he blew away the public money on this stupid errand that on his watch government advertising in his domain virtually turned into a jumma bazaar, swept stormily by venality and corruption.

Still worse, the Chaudhrys, who became this coalition's helmsmen more for benediction of the invisible hands than for any spectacular merit of their own, defied giving democracy to their own handmade PML (Q) and made no effort for democracy travelling down to the parliament either. Keeping any consultative processes in the party out was as much of their fond wont as was their submissive acceptance of all the state policy and decision making staying religiously berthed in obscure official quarters. And instead of encouraging and promoting the coalition to become the fountainhead of ideas for state policies, while they surrounded themselves with officials to think for them and decide for them, they made no move either to make the general to be all-inclusive in state policy- and decision- making.

No wonder, while the general stands abandoned, many have jumped the Chaudhrys' own rocking ship. Yet, this trounced coalition is still not a dead horse. Together, it has polled the largest vote, losing many a seat by a margin of only a few thousands; the PML (Q) by itself was a bigger vote-scorer than the rival (PML (N) in Punjab. The coalition has the meat to become a political force to reckon with. It has the talent, the expertise and the experience to be counted as an opposition worth it, but if only the Chaudhrys let go off their own ambitions, woo back their estranged companions, and work for a respectable opposition.

If the citizens will now be watchfully scrutinising the new ruling leadership if it works on its own political agenda or on the people's agenda, they will no lesser be critically watching the opposition if it goes for a constructive role or if it takes to the bunk style of desk-thumping, walkouts and rowdyism of its predecessors. And this opposition will surely make mark with the electorate if it comes prepared to make critical appraisals of the new leadership's policies and programmes in an objective, informed and dispassionate manner. And if it does impress the electorate in this role, in the next poll the voters will certainly be quite generous and considerate to it. Rebound it can; it must strive.