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Friday March 29, 2024

Faizabad seizure: the damage has been done

By Tariq Butt
November 20, 2017

ISLAMABAD: The seizure of Faizabad intersection, linking Islamabad with Rawalpindi and the rest of Pakistan, by protesters for nearly two weeks now, has unfortunately achieved its objective – making the government look gutless and spineless.


Whether the occupation instantly ends or prolongs for any length of time, it has already caused paralysis. The damage has been done and a pronounced message has been reinforced once again that a few thousands of agitators can lay siege to the capital without any fear of the so called long arm of law. The course of besieging the government and undermining the civilian authority is unbreakable, uninterrupted.


Besides, the image of Pakistan that is being splashed abroad owing to this protest is appalling. Regardless of the motives behind every such agitation, the homeland’s picture is always tarred in the international circuit. Whether the apparent sponsors of such protests have been political or religious, they have never cared about how Pakistan is being painted abroad by such demonstrations.


Ironically, no mainstream political or religious party has taken any stand on the sit-in, taking exception to the blockade of Islamabad. They are quietly waiting for the government to lose patience and take a decisive action against the protesters. If there are, God forbid, any casualties in any such operation, which, however, seems unlikely, these very political forces will then rejoice, endeavour to reap political advantage, and take on the government for messing up and incompetence. This is the despicable state of affair in the politics of Pakistan.


Unlike the present protest, the previous two sit-ins, independently organized by a faction of the main party, Tehreek-e-Labaik, that has arranged the current agitation, and the protest sponsored by Allama Tahirul Qadri’s Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) in 2013, had failed to achieve their intended purposes.


The earlier Tehreek-e-Labaik protest, which was held on the Jinnah Avenue three weeks ago, did not seriously harm the government or challenge the writ of the State much as it dispersed peacefully after staying on the venue for a week. Its participants were confined to a small section of the Jinnah Avenue and the normal life in Islamabad was not disturbed very much. They were also not very aggressive and violent as the present agitators are.


The 2013 sit-in of the PAT at the D-Chowk had also failed to accomplish its goal – postponing of the forthcoming general elections. Qadri had aimed at bringing down the democratic edifice altogether by raising the slogan: first save the State. A ruinous blow had then been served to him by the then Chief Justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who, before throwing out his petition for electoral reforms, had questioned his very locus standi to file the plea for being a Canadian citizen, who can’t even contest an election.


When the PAT chief had arranged the sit-in out of the blue, suddenly flying back from Canada for hardly any rhyme or reason, the parliamentary polls were just four months away and the then government was about to pack up. The regime had become panicked as every administration does in the face of such agitation. It had not lost its nerves and had engaged Qadri in negotiations to wrap up his show.


However, 2014’s sit-ins of the PAT and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had greatly realized their envisaged objectives although they had not led to overthrowing of the Nawaz Sharif government. Their “sordid” achievements were: a blunt message was conveyed to the prime minister pointblank how he can be comprehensively cornered and incapacitated if he did not behave and thinks of pursuing independent policies in key areas; the government was considerably destabilized and became wavering; the democratic system was drastically debilitated; and a new machination to besiege the civilian administration by a few thousands of protesters was successfully tested and executed for the future.


The PTI and PAT never expressed remorse even slightly over what havoc they played at the time by challenging the writ of the State and making Pakistan a laughing stock in the world eye. Rather, the PTI continues to brag for the 126-day long sit-in, boasting of its street power and popular appeal. Its duration had prolonged the sufferings of the people to an unprecedented level.


The only time the federal government had shown guts and a semblance of the writ of the State came in November 2016 when the PTI had attempted lockdown of Islamabad. Security forces had frustrated storming of the capital by use of force in a measured way. The protest fell apart resulting in its hurried cancellation. Imran Khan preferred not to come out of his Bani Gala residence, waiting for a sea of people to reach Islamabad. It did not happen. He locked himself in his farmhouse to escape arrest. He failed to coerce the government into doing for what the adventure has been undertaken.


The present sit-in by the Tehreek-e-Labaik and some other religious parties has also attained its objective – blocking the federal capital. The government is in no mood to accept its main demand of sacking Federal Law Minister Zahid Hamid. But it has made a mockery of the government authority. Although breaking the crowd doesn’t require any major amount of security forces, the government is extraordinarily cautious and careful to avoid the option of use of force. The Model Town Lahore tragedy continues to haunt it. Its opponents want it to be trapped at this critical time of tenure.