Deadline

With a 24-hour deadline looming over the PTI – announced by the Punjab government – to hand over the “terrorists” that have per the Punjab authorities taken refuge at Imran Khan’s house in Zaman Park, the events of the past 24 hours will not be of much consolation to a party that is now increasingly looking besieged. Some would say this is a reckoning that had been foretold years earlier – but more on that in a while. The context here is important. The National Security Committee which met on Tuesday has spoken: and it has replicated much of what has been stated before by the ISPR. The message is strong and unequivocal: anyone found guilty of having vandalized or attacked infrastructure on May 9 will be tried under the relevant laws, which include the Pakistan Army Act and the Official Secrets Act. While the federal government has said that the PTI workers who attacked military installations will be tried under these laws, COAS Gen Asim Munir too has said that all those responsible for “bringing shame to the nation on the Black Day of May 9” will be brought to justice.

All this comes as observers point to the PTI’s ‘unraveling’ as it were, the party already having lost three second-tier leaders: Aamer Mehmood Kiani, Sanjay Gangwani and Mahmood Maulvi. As top-tier leaders behind bars start mulling over their futures, will we see more public statements such as those by Fawad Chaudhry and Ali Zaidi? Perhaps. However, ‘it ain’t over till it’s over’ so one would be hesitant to categorically call it the end of such a blue-eyed project. It should be noted that every year since at least 2014 saner analysts and students of political history have been pointing out – mainly to the PTI – that the only way forward for democracy is to understand that despite all political rivalry your best bet is to talk to the opposing side. In this recent crisis too, we had time and again asked for a break to the polarization, and some effort at a return ro parliamentary politics. And yet here we are: a party that has become a victim of its own hubris and myopia, a state that may be turning to harsher consequences, and a government that is prominent only in its near-absence from decision-making.

In all of this, a word of caution for every stakeholder involved: the judiciary needs to go back to being in the lofty position they were once rightly held to. Courts must be seen to dispense justice, yes – but justice must be blind enough to its own preferences. In a judicial vacuum, there is a fear that efforts such as moving justice into non-civilian forums may be resorted to. That must be avoided. We have civilian laws that work just as well. The PTI and its leader need to realize that their day in the sun can only be returned to them if they choose a more democratic path of politics, one that does not involve attacking institutional symbols. And the government may want to remember its talk about rule of law, justice and arrest and detention before it took power. Pakistan is at the moment giving out terrible optics to the world: from the horrifying and inexcusable May 9 attacks on state property to the arrests and detentions at play. This is not how democracies work.