PTI, PPP separate protests not prudent at present

Islamabad

Unlike the protest “Raiwind march” of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), two major public activities of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) on September 28 and 30 are basically meant for mobilization for its revival in Punjab.

However, all the events sponsored by the PTI and PPP are ill-timed in view of India’s sabre-rattling in the wake of a major attack on the Uri headquarters across the Line of Control (LoC) on Sunday. New Delhi is speculated to be considering different aggressive options against Pakistan while Islamabad is putting its act together to respond in a befitting manner.

While the PTI’s agitation has fueled fears of an armed confrontation, and rightly so, with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), some of whose segments have overreacted, there are no such apprehensions about the PPP’s undertaking because it is not a disruptive agitation but a bid to revitalize and restore its lost glory in the majority province where its fortunes plunged unprecedentedly in the 2013 general elections. No PML-N leader will raise any objection to its programme.

The PPP has rejuvenated its efforts to garner support of farmers, most of whom had been its voters, by planning to take out a Kissan rally in Lahore. Its second activity will be a rally from Faisalabad to Chiniot led by leader of opposition in the National Assembly Khursheed Shah and a subsequent public meeting.

This function will coincide with the Raiwind march for being held the same day and will naturally divide the public attention between the two important events. The Raiwind march and the PPP’s activities, focused in Punjab alone, will conclude three days before the start of the month of Moharramul Harram.

While the PTI is obsessed with its unabated anti-government campaign and the PPP has jumped in the arena to reinvigorate it, threatening Indian posturing has alerted Pakistan to brace up for any adventure from across the border. The closure of northern areas’ airspace and Islamabad-Peshawar section of the Pakistan Motorway on Wednesday was meant for military purposes.

On Tuesday, the Indian Army claimed blocking an attempt by suspected Pakistani militants to cross into the Indian Held Kashmir (IHK) days after Sunday’s raid on the Uri headquarters. “A group of 10-12 terrorists attempted to infiltrate the Uri sector. They were intercepted and the infiltration bid was foiled,” claimed Indian Army spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia, referring to the same area where the Sunday’s attack took place.

This drama was staged at a time when even India herself had not alleged that there had been infiltrations from Pakistan during the current protracted, renewed and indigenous uprising in the IHK in which more than eighty Kashmiris have so far embraced martyrdom and Pakistan flag is fluttering everywhere in the held valley. The revolt got a fillip after the martyrdom of freedom fighter Burhanuddin Wani, and hundreds of thousands of Indian forces are unable to control the situation despite worst atrocities. 

The Indian theatrics tremendously increased after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif made it known repeatedly before leaving for New York that he would raise the Kashmir issue in a big way during his speech to the UN General Assembly session. In the larger game, the whole conspiracy, hatched by India and some other countries against Pakistan, is intended to sabotage the $46 billion China-Pak Economic Corridor (CPEC), which the entire civil and military leadership and China are determined to complete come what may because this will change the fate of Pakistan as well as the region.

Last year too on September 18 when the prime minister had flown to New York to attend the global body’s session and deliver a speech exposing India on Kashmir, three Pakistani civilians were killed and three others wounded in Azad Kashmir in a fierce shelling by Indian troops from across the LoC.

A day later, twenty-nine people including the personnel of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) were killed in a terrorist attack at the Badaber base. The criminals came from Afghanistan, which is under the tight control of India and is dancing to New Delhi’s tunes.

This time also, there are fears that New Delhi will sponsor more terrorist attacks through Afghanistan, which is one of the options before it.

In this scenario, the heightened political activities by the PTI and PPP, which may disturb public peace and when total unity is direly needed, are misplaced and imprudent.