And so it begins

The overture to the main event on November 2nd 2016 is being played live to a national audience


Editorial October 28, 2016
Imran Khan (C) gestures during a media briefing outside his house in Islamabad on October 28, 2016. PHOTO: REUTERS

With Sheikh Rashid taking a cigar from its tube at Committee Chowk in Rawalpindi and calling on the police to arrest him, and the firing of tear gas by the police in Rawalpindi seeking to enforce Section 144 — the overture to the main event on November 2nd 2016 is being played live to a national audience. On the evening of 27th October police had broken up a rally by young PTI supporters who they beat with batons, arresting 38. The gathering was peaceful until the police intervened.

For the authorities it appears that they are ready and willing to take a hard line from the outset, determined to enforce Section 144, and none too fussy about donning kid gloves to do just that. For the protesters there appears to be a determination to see through, perhaps to the bitterest of ends, the decision by Imran Khan to close down government in the capital city of Pakistan. Neither side is in a position where compromise is an option and they are all firmly painted into their respective corners. The time for negotiation and compromise may have passed although we hope not and there has to be doubt as to whether it was ever a serious option anyway.



As events play out on the streets it is already evident that there is collateral damage. On the night of Wednesday 26th October the government began impounding hundreds of containers across Punjab and centralising them in and around Islamabad and Rawalpindi in order to block access points and prevent demonstrators entering Islamabad. The majority of containers were loaded and destined for Karachi, some with perishable goods, others with export orders. This directly penalises parties that are wholly innocent of anything beyond going about their lawful business, and is in marked contrast to the situation in Sindh which has purchased 200 containers to use as barricades. There can be no justification for this lack of preparedness and it is unlikely that the transporters are going to be compensated for their losses. It is reported that the government needs 400 containers to block access routes.

In another development, the Pakistan Stock Exchange in Karachi came under heavy selling pressure because of the political difficulties surrounding the government. The benchmark KSE 100 index declined on Thursday 27th by 539.50 points to close at 39,987.31 points. This hardly constitutes a collapse of the stock market but it is an indicator that there are collateral effects that are a response to events in Islamabad and Rawalpindi. It is estimated that the events in the KSE last Thursday have wiped $3.35 billion off the stock market.

Taken together these events are not mere ‘blips’ that are transient. Large sums of money have been lost by many with no political connections whatsoever. The government handling of a situation that looks like it is only going to get worse before it gets better already points to a ham-fistedness that is a harbinger of more of the same in the very near future.

By late on Friday afternoon it also became clear that the government had decided to confine Imran Khan to the pavilion by not allowing him to leave his Bani Galla residence and join his supporters in Rawalpindi. At a press conference held there he posed a pertinent question — ‘Is this a kingdom or a democracy?’ he asked — a question that under the circumstances he has every right to ask as he is effectively under house arrest. The confrontation between the government and the PTI has now enveloped the judiciary that has made an order in favour of the PTI right to protest. Failure to comply places the government in direct conflict with the judiciary with potentially serious consequences. Even at this eleventh hour it is possible to shelve the egos and compromise, because nothing is worth bringing the system tumbling around the ears of all of us.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 29th, 2016.

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