Tyranny at tether end?

Tyranny is not tenable. The same seems to have reached the tethered end as people from all walks of life seemingly have been fed up after one-year rule of the incumbent government. The Azadi March may be symptomatic of the mood of the people. The PTI leadership sadly not only put the major political leaders behind the bars but also meted out humiliating treatment equating with torture. The denial of facilities in the hot and humid weather cobbled with medical facilities to the former elected President of Pakistan and thrice elected Prime Minister of Pakistan was cruelty by any stretch of imagination. Their state of health today might be the result of the torture they were subjected to at the hands of authorities. The former president was not even convicted, but put in confinement merely on the basis of allegations. His incarceration exemplified the law of jungle because he was facing the situation quite opposite to the principle of dispensation of justice – one is innocent unless proven guilty.

The PPP and the PML-N, two major parties, though seemingly agree to the majority of the demands of the Azadi March but presumably disagree to the modus Operandi of the JUI-F to achieve the political objectives and therefore have decided to distance themselves from joining the sit-in considering it as supra-constitutional methodology. Both the parties seemingly feel that the ultimate tactics may be used against the incumbent government only after when all other options have been exhausted. It was therefore considered the use of the ultimate strategy in the first place is tactically misplaced. Secondly, they being the democratic parties may not like to be identified as the parties those use the religion as the ladder for the attainment of political objectives. Thirdly, the parties believe that two wrongs cannot make one right. They have decided to keep the safe distance as being the parties those believe in democracy and in democratic struggle through peaceful means. The sit-in of the PTI was wrong that was driven to pull down the legitimate government through unconstitutional means that was happily scuttled with the strength of the Parliament.PIT leadership and its supporters may be repenting their miscalculation of not reciprocating to the honest offer of the Opposition in favor of parliamentary politics as against the politics of agitation. The sea of people of ‘Azadi March’ poised against the ‘imposed government’ with the resolve to end it by opposing must have stirred their understanding to normalcy. It may have jolted their understanding close to the fundamentals of functioning democracy that was earlier chipped away to the hilt. The piggybacking of the PTI with the power that be ironically gave much misplaced confidence for opting to go after the Opposition stalwarts instead of seeking their cooperation to overcome the challenges facing the country. The overall situation is much worse from all accounts than it was before the incumbent government took the rein of the country. In pursuit of its wild goose chase the PTI leadership unwisely put the prominent political opponents behind bars under the pretext of so-called accountability. It is largely deemed as sinister drive to muzzle the Opposition to submission. The rose petal thinking of the mandarins has indeed proved as prelude to wearing garland of thorns eventually to the trepidation of its supporters as well. The fight of internecine nature is going to hurt all if better sense does not sway their political thinking.

Its flawed strategy in perpetuity has culminated in Azadi March with shout out to pull down the ‘fake government’ that has been installed through fake elections and therefore is not entitled to run the country for want of legitimacy. The Opposition on the other side of the equation, carrying massive support manifested in the protest march, suggests that the government may be losing the ground with no chance of stopping notwithstanding erecting of the walls of 500 containers. No power is greater than the people’s power when mobilised to write their own destiny. It seems they have decided to get rid of the government. Their powerful supporters may feel no slightest hesitation when confronted with the situation equating with the government as liability than an asset. The support may not prove worthwhile enough for the government than the clutching at straw in a tempest of the people that is in unforgiving mood. The Azadi March presents the same kind of scenario after seeing the level of participation of the people and their charged response at the call of their leaders.

It may be recalled that the PTI leadership used to flaunt to provide containers along with facilitations if the political opponents wade to hold protest rallies against the government at D-Chowk. How much the water has flown down the bridges as the same leadership has now placed hundreds of containers as boulders to prevent the protestors’ entry to the federal capital to hold peaceful protest. Undoubtedly, the government is feeling the heat. It is evident that the government is under increasing pressure and therefore taking preemptive measures to thwart the protest through all possible tactics, strong or otherwise. Again, the government strategy is going to kick in the face because it may serve as fuel to the fire leading to conflagration. The situation may be easy to handle if the government decide not to use iron-fist tactics because in the protest of that scale such tactics are bound to be counter-productive if studied in the context of the past experiences.

The PTI months’ long sit-in could not pull down the PML (N) government because it was a legitimate government that came to power through free and fair elections and the outgoing Party PPP accepted the results. Secondly, almost all the other parties were against the PTI sit-in because of its declared objective of bringing down the government by hook or crook to the utter disregard of the constitutional rules of succession. Its sustained attempts of delegitimizing all the constitutional institutions in a bid to invite the “third empire” failed because the then Parliament was in the way to scuttle all the shenanigans of those were visibly against democracy and the constitutional rule. The PTI and its members of the Parliament had to resort to stinging back foot as they failed to force the democratic government to resign. The Parliament and the parliamentarians finally had the field day and the PTI was left to lick its wounds.

The PTI was doing negative politics based on the narrative not to allow the PML (N) government’s smooth sailing so that it could not fully concentrate on the development of the political economy thus dampening its electoral prospects in elections to be held in 2018. Its obsession did not care about the strategic interests of the country as the Chinese President had to postpone his scheduled visit to Pakistan during which he was supposed to announce about $50 billion investment under the CPEC. The lightning bolt of ‘Dawnleaks’ provided the much needed opportunity to the PTI that had been working on the premise of PML-N government’s losses were its gains. The much awaited fault-line between the Nawaz Sharif government and the Establishment came handy for the PTI to exploit it for accumulating political mileage leading to the corridors of power.

Akram Shaheedi muhammadshaheedi@yahoo.com