News Analysis
ISLAMABAD: The government faces “damned if it does, damned if it doesn’t” situation to deal with the planned November 2 lockdown of the federal capital by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
“Obviously, our pristine aim is that the protest culminates peacefully and no damage is done to the government and no physical harm is inflicted on agitators although it is difficult to achieve both these objectives, considering the grave threats emanating from the sponsoring party,” a senior federal minister told The News wishing not to be named.
He said nothing was so far final as discussions were continuing in the relevant quarters to firm up the conclusive strategy to successfully manage the lockdown in a way that the protest is contained and remains peaceful and there are no casualties.
The minister said that it has been decided that the police and paramilitary forces, deployed at different points of Islamabad, would not be provided live bullets. However, they would be given rubber bullets that, he said, would be used only when there would be no other option to control unruly mobsters.
Another informed source said that the government has credible information that the first day, November 2, would be most crucial for the reason that the PTI was working hard to show its maximum power on that day, knowing that it would be difficult for it to keep the crowds in place for any greater length of time.
The participation of some political parties that have committed support to the lockdown is likely to be symbolic on the ground as they don’t have muchmuch public appeal. They are the same players that were associated with the 2014 sit-in in one way or the other. Whether it is the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT), Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) or Sahibzada Hamid Raza’s small religious grouping, they all have agreed to be part of the agitation one by one. In the beginning, they were unwilling as it was a total solo flight of the PTI. However, any political party worth the name is still to associate with this protest.
The source believed that the contribution of the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) would be different from that of 2014 when it had independently sponsored the protest timed with the PTI’s agitation. This time, it was unexpected to be too large, he claimed.
He did not rule out placing Imran Khan and some other PTI leaders under detention for a couple of days, waiting for the protest to subside and agitators to disperse. He claimed that except the PTI chief there is no other party leader that charms crowds.
A serious dilemma, the source said, the government is confronted with is that if it allows the agitators to do what they like, there will be total paralysis of the official machinery in the capital, which will be virtually locked down, and that is what the PTI loves. However, he said, if the administration used force to check the protesters from resorting to this illegality, they will react to create a scene.
The most worrying for the federal government is the procession that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister Pervez Khattak will lead from his province to join the lockdown venture, the source said. “It will naturally not be possible for the law enforcement agencies to stop him from coming to Islamabad on that day.”
However, he said that it would be softly ensured that the protesters accompanying the chief minister in any number would not be let to reach the capital while Khattak would be allowed to go. “However, this has the potential of aggravating the situation, but it has to be done. We expect maximum contribution to the protesters will come from KP because of the efforts of the provincial government and PTI legislators there.”
The source was optimistic that it would be made an uphill task for the agitators from most parts of Punjab to make it to Islamabad. By now, most of the designs and intentions of the PTI and the government have been fully openly exposed and comprehensively projected in threatening tones for a number of times. Through their statements, Imran Khan and other top party leaders have articulated their determination to “peacefully” lock down the capital come what may, to fight with police if they were stopped from implementing their plan, and to storm police stations where their workers were detained.
On the other hand, the leaders of the federal and Punjab governments have made it known that Islamabad would not be allowed to be locked down under any circumstances and the state apparatus would spring in action to frustrate any such attempt.
Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan is saddled with the primary responsibility to ensure that law and order prevails on the lockdown day; citizens are not much inconvenienced, government offices keep functioning, there is business as usual in Islamabad and the capital is not shut down as threatened. Immediately after the protest call was issued, he has held a number of meetings to formulate the strategy.