The joint opposition rally in Lahore on Wednesday had been touted as a potential game-changer as the street power of Tahirul Qadri’s Pakistan Awami Tehreek was combined with the forces of the PTI and the PPP for the first time. The protest was something of a damp squib as only a few thousand – and that might be stretching it – showed up. No definite plan of action emerged. Instead Tahirul Qadri has said a plan of action would be worked out by him and his allies. This is essentially an admission of failure to deliver on a script that by now has become dog-eared with use. There aren’t many people to be found without insight into its contents. Much was made of the fact that this would be the first time the PTI and the PPP protested together but any impact that may have had was spoiled by PTI chief Imran Khan’s insulting treatment of Asif Ali Zardari. Khan only showed up after Zardari had departed and pointedly refused to sit with members of the PPP – the party that probably had the most presence on stage with stalwarts like Khurshid Shah, Aitzaz Ahsan and Qamar Zaman Kaira, in addition of course to Zardari, gleefully enjoying the occasion. The futility of the PPP leadership undergoing this humiliation was reflected in the condemnatory mode the PPP went into after the protest rally. That does not change the fact that they were part of the denigration of parliament and the condemnation of themselves that was on display in a show that will perhaps be remembered only for this fact. They condemned themselves with élan. This is not an unexpected embarrassment given the differences between the PTI and the PPP and the widely known and aired vitriolic attacks by Imran Khan on the PPP, Zardari in particular.
Those who pretend to be shocked by the curses and abuses hurled at parliament should remember that these curses and abuses are articles of faith for the PAT and PTI. When last time this attitude was written into a script we saw those who stood with and within parliament being viciously abused as thieves and criminals. And who should feel it more than Khurshid Shah? It was another matter that the failure of the dharna-container show and the attack on parliament had to be followed by PTI heads hung low as they entered the same parliament they had condemned as a ‘den of thieves’ to renew their allegiance to it, with their leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi proclaiming that what goes on outside parliament is irrelevant to what happens inside it. This was the famous ‘show-some-shame’ moment. Yet, to its credit, the PTI has never made any bones about its ultimate aim – overthrowing the government by hook or by crook. All its ‘joint’ protests in the past have ultimately tried to topple the PML-N no matter what the cost. Zardari, no matter what his strategy is, essentially aided it by giving the whole scene a Modi-Nawaz touch as well. The PPP, though, has always maintained that its first priority is the smooth functioning and continuation of our democratic system. What you actually do cannot be trumped by what you say. After-the-event lip service is disingenuous as the PPP knows the anti-democratic and anti-civilian nature of the PAT and was the target of its first attempt during its own tenure. Threats of resignation have been bandied about – although this too is in keeping with the earlier announcements of leaving parliament, which were never followed through. Rhetoric that incites violence is also a staple of the Imran-Qadri show and Qadri’s language this time too carried dangerous incitement to violence and murder.
The question for the parties involved in the protest is what they plan on doing next, now that their rally fizzled out in such an anti-climactic manner. If this remains the situation, Qadri can keep protesting – or disappear as he usually does – since he has no electoral constituency of his own. For Imran abuses, accusations, threats and ‘protests’ seem to be the only mode of ‘action’ – political organisation and structure building being far beyond his and his party’s capacity. The cobbled-together alliance showed the limits of its power on Wednesday, leaving uncertainty about what its next move will be. But if failures of dharnas and ‘protests’ were enough for the now four-year-old show to end, it should have ended long ago. We can rest assured the problem is not going anywhere as the by-now old hopes will keep being inflamed by new developments and new accidents that this government looks fated to meet.