ISLAMABAD: The unceremonious end of the 2014 sit-in of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) unmistakably weakened Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and left him wavering and shaky but the end of its botched lockdown of the federal capital has strengthened his position and infused confidence in him.
This is the fundamental difference between the outcomes of the two high-profile deafening protests that even threatened the very survival of the constitutionally elected government as well as democratic dispensation, shook the very roots of Pakistan and choked economic development for some time.
In both cases, Imran Khan was loser while in one instance the prime minister became unstable and in the other gained a lot. Another end-result of the two agitations is that the PTI chairman had a huge loss of face due to the abrupt winding up of the 2014 show although he was in search of face-saving after his protest had exceedingly dwindled and become a joke because of highly waned public interest following a few weeks of its launch. A good excuse was provided to him by worst terrorism at the Army Public School of Peshawar.
But despite that the federal government had been seriously harmed and mauled and one of the primary objectives - its undermining - of the previous sit-in had been achieved although the protest had not led to its overthrow on the force of the mobocracy.
On the contrary, Imran Khan had not been earlier politically damaged much compared to the loss suffered by the prime minister as the writ of the government had been unprecedentedly made a mockery. At the time, all the political parties had come to Nawaz Sharif’s rescue and nailed the PTI’s raid. Not only the political forces but also the Parliament had firmly stood behind him.
This time too, extreme fears gripped people at large after Imran Khan announced to lock down Islamabad, marked by a powerful whispering campaign and vilification by some TV channels of the democratic government. It was asserted in this drive that Imran Khan was doing all this as a last ditch effort to rope in the military to topple the prime minister.
In 2014, it was frequently stressed that the government would have been sent packing had the PTI and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) brought even half a million protesters to lay a siege to the administration. This is of course a despicable logic that a government should be dismissed if a large number of people storm the capital. Now, it was also bandied about that it would be impossible for the prime minister to survive if Imran Khan was successful single-handed to transport massive throngs of protesters for Islamabad’s lockdown.
A stark similarity between the two protests is that both times the sponsors miserably failed to show people in such a huge number that they could jam the government and everything else in the capital. This time, Imran Khan’s effort turned out to be a complete dud as at no stage more than a couple of hundreds of his followers were present around his residence in Bani Gala or anywhere else in Islamabad because of the successful official strategy to block the attackers with force but without producing dead bodies that the PTI was desperately looking for.
Whenever Imran Khan embarked up a misadventure to rattle the government, some devastating terrorist incident took place that at times forced him to change his mind and at others he stuck to his protest programme. He also stated that whenever he undertakes a major agitation, some terrorist attack takes place. A few days before his Adda Plot Lahore public rally, more than sixty police cadets in Quetta were massacred but he declared that come what may be would not call off this public show. In the case of abortive lockdown, he kept announcing that he would be unstoppable ignoring any terrorist hit.
But a question that is circulating in many minds is: what forced Imran Khan to abandon his lockdown plan when no terrorism has struck any part of Pakistan. His argument that he gave up the present protest to avoid bloodshed is illogical, unreasonable and untenable, considering his frequent bombastic announcements. It was immensely clear even to ordinary souls that violence will explode if he tried to lock down Islamabad. The proportionate use of state force frustrated the bids to storm the capital in which it was ensured that no agitator loses life in the mayhem. The official policy was a success.
The winding up of the ambitious lockdown plan thoroughly disappointed and demoralised a large number of PTI workers. If he is prepared to show sanity even now, he would shun unending protests and use his energies to prepare for the 2018 general elections. Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan’s remark that it was not a win or defeat of any side doesn’t sound convincing because his strategy produced the desired results while Imran Khan’s dream stood shattered. His assertion was nothing but a consolation for the PTI supremo.
Three days before Imran Khan announced to part with the lockdown programme and instead hold a public meeting, the prime minister said while addressing a gathering in Kasur that “the political demise of our opponents is imminent and they have only a few days left before they disappear”. This has not proved to be fully true but it certainly has made them to “disappear” from an ominous position.