Govt mulling four options to tackle PTI protest

ISLAMABAD: The federal government is mulling over four hard options to frustrate Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan’s threatened plan to paralyze, seize and occupy the federal capital on November 2 for an indefinite period.

“We have not an iota of doubt that Imran Khan is desperate to get dead bodies on the very first day of the protest,” a senior federal cabinet member told The News on condition of anonymity. “But our strategy is to avert any eventuality that fulfills his dream.”

He said not only the government but every sensible person agrees and asserts that the PTI chairman has become very impatient to create a bloody scene. He claimed that Imran Khan knows from the experience of 2014 that the protest would run out of steam if it was prolonged. Therefore, the minister said, the PTI chairman is keen to do the trick on the first day.

Moreover, the source said Imran Khan’s moves clearly show that he is in a great haste as if given a specific deadline to spawn violence otherwise it would be too late. For this reason, he said, the PTI chief has presented this protest as a “do or die” effort.

A critical option being actively deliberated upon in official quarters is to arrest only Imran Khan on the night before the protest, confine him to his Bani Gala farmhouse or shift him elsewhere, far away from the capital, another minister said.

He pointed out that the government now has a valid justification to arrest Imran Khan on the force of an order of the Islamabad Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC), which on Friday directed the capital police to execute its arrest warrants for the PTI chairman and Pakistan Awami Tehrik (PAT) chief Tahirul Qadri in a case relating to the attack on the Pakistan Television (PTV) Headquarters in 2014. Judge Kausar Abbas Zaidi inquired why police have not been able to give an implementation report on the ATC arrest orders about the two leaders, and expressed his displeasure over the police failure to submit the implementation report. He directed authorities to arrest the two and 68 others by November 17 and present them in court on that date.

However, he apprehended that the move has the potential of attracting a sharp, rather violent reaction from the PTI agitators, but said it may be controllable to some extent. But he admitted that the measure may provide an opportunity to Imran Khan to offer himself to his followers as the one who suffered for their cause, which would be meant to garner further sympathy and support. Another view is that the whole protest may collapse in case the PTI chairman was detained because his workers don’t have the stamina and guts to face any strong steps by the state apparatus.

“If such a decision was made, it will of course be taken very undesirably as our record reflects that the government has not subjected any politician or political worker to this kind of treatment. That’s there is not a single political prisoner now,” the minister said.

The second option being considered at the official level, according to another cabinet member, is not to detain Imran Khan but catch hold of the second tier of leadership that will play the actual role in collecting and bringing protesters to Islamabad. “The government has comprehensive information in this regard, and there is no problem in pinpointing who is doing what for this illegal protest.”

Official sources acknowledge the downside and hazards of these two options. There are fears that such moves may fuel further troubles on the streets. The third option being deliberated upon by the government is to give a free hand to Imran Khan and let him and his agitators do what they want to paint themselves black in the public eye. Such a policy will be quite akin to the strategy that was largely adopted in 2014. However, cabinet sources admit that this approach will give the impression that the government is nonexistent, a fact that can’t be allowed to emerge because it is basic duty of the government to protect the life and property of people. They say the writ of the government will then be reduced to a mere joke once again.

They concede that the protesters will have a field day if they were not put to severe curbs and that the agitators may even attack key installations and important government offices. The fourth option being pondered over in relevant official circles is a combination of somewhat strong-arm methods and soft handling, meaning that there would be no detention of Imran Khan or other PTI leaders of any rank but the protest would be foiled with the use of force only when it would become unruly and threatening to the extent of locking down the capital.

Whatever option the government finally chooses to exercise, shipping containers will certainly appear in Islamabad once again in hundreds to protect government installations and offices and block roads to stop the agitators from going on a rampage. Islamabadites are going to face another nightmare, similar to the one they were forced to bear in 2014 for several weeks.