What was the use of Article 245 if police alone are to deal with protesters, which seems to have been the case.
LAHORE: The attack on PTV headquarters by PTI and PAT workers is a result of mob mentality. The workers were incited by provocative speeches and comments by their respective leaders Imran Khan and Allama Tahir ul Qadri who went on to term the storming as victory of the protesters. This has given an extremely negative image of Pakistan in the international community making the country look like a banana republic. Such kind of gangster behavior is by itself undemocratic and unconstitutional.
Several questions remain unanswered to which we as citizens seek answers. One of them relates to the invocation of Article 245 and deployment of the military in Islamabad well before the dharnas began. The question is that what was the use of this if the police alone are to deal with the protesters, which seems to have been the case for much of the time.
Furthermore, the prime minister, in agreement with the proposals of Opposition Leader in the NA Khurshid Shah and Opposition Leader in the Senate Aitzaz Ahsan, decided to convene a joint session of parliament on September 2. Given that this decision was taken on August 31, why wasn’t the joint session held instead on Monday, Sept 1?
Salma Tahir
Published in The Express Tribune, September 2nd, 2014.
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