Islamabad blockade won’t be a peaceful protest

Islamabad

A predominant majority of people wonder and dispute Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan’s oft-repeated assertion with his familiar confidence that his threatened lockdown of Islamabad is a peaceful mode of protest.

If blockading of the federal capital on the force of political power is a nonviolent protest, the definition of violent agitation has to be changed in the dictionary. It goes without saying that the Constitution and law do not sanction such kind of “peaceful” resort -- mayhem and chaos. Nobody in his senses would call such shutdown a peaceful protest.

It is known to all and sundry including even the PTI that the attempts to forcibly close down Islamabad will definitely lead to unruly, even violent, scenes as the government will take every step to frustrate such mob attacks. When, despite knowing that such types of raids can’t be allowed by any government, the Constitution or law, Imran Khan is adamant on going ahead with his plan, it clearly means that he is poised to provoke the regime to use force so that an armed showdown takes place and his movement gets a long-desired fillip as a result.

Everybody realizes and readily agrees that a violent confrontation between the PTI workers and law enforcement agencies, resulting in casualties, will not be a soothing and encouraging development for the very democratic system of which Imran Khan is also a beneficiary and stakeholder by having his government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). But it is only he who is not willing to appreciate and apprehend such an eventuality in which every politician will be a loser. Maybe, he also does recognize the inherent risks and dangers in his present misadventure, but is pushed to the wall by his benefactors to embark upon the do or die trajectory otherwise it would be too late.

As usual, he expressed his total lack of confidence in all the state institutions which he has approached to get the prime minister out of office. He is frustrated with the performance of the Election Commission of Pakistan, the Public Accounts Committee, the National Assembly Speaker, the Federal Board of Revenue and to a large extent the Supreme Court as well for the mere reason that they have not banished and thrown out Nawaz Sharif.

No doubt, it is up to the government how it will deprive the PTI of its cherished aim it is yearning for the past three years. All along, the administration has displayed a remarkable patience even in the face of gangsterism that was witnessed in 2014 when the key installations were attacked by the mobs of the PTI and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT). As everything was duly preserved by the eye of the camera and recorded, denials are nothing but humbug.

This time, the government may not be as lenient and spineless as it was in the past. It is likely to take stringent steps to maintain peace and tranquility so that people have a normal life and the state machinery functions.

After failing to get Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif dislodged by using every trick in his bag for several times, Imran Khan has demonstrated through his final announcement to lock down Islamabad.

During his endless protest campaign to satisfy his penchant to remain on the streets all the time, he has earned many “distinctions” in the unconstitutional and illegal domain.

No political party has ever chosen such kinds of ceaseless protests in Pakistan’s history, and that too single-handed. Even during the movement of the nine parties forming part of the PNA (Pakistan National Alliance) that led to the imposition of martial law by General Ziaul Haq did not contain any call to lock down cities. However, it was tried to impede the Punjab assembly to hold its meeting.

When Imran Khan says that the allegation being leveled against him that his protest will be a threat to democracy is meant to hamper him from exercising his constitutional right of “peaceful” protest, he doesn’t realize the consequences of the PNA movement. He also doesn’t understand that regardless of the fact as to who is the prime minister democracy in Pakistan is still to take roots to bear the brunt of violent agitation like many countries of the world. Here, alarm bells start ringing the moment a civilian government exercises its authority to quell illegal and unconstitutional protests.

The PTI chairman has now chosen a somewhat “easy” way of protest that would not require tens of thousands of his followers to converge on Islamabad to make his protest successful. Everyone knows that just a couple of hundred people would be more than sufficient to block a road. The Islamabad Expressway is at times blocked by just a few dozens of protesters. The federal capital has some half a dozen entry and exist points that can be blockaded by a few hundreds of agitators.