PTI must avoid the overzealousness of previous governments

The only way rallies and protests can hurt the government will be if the government panics and acts overzealously

In November of 1997, after winning an unprecedented two-thirds majority in the National Assembly, Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) was embroiled in a legal conflict with the country’s Supreme Court. In the midst of a nerve-racking impasse, Sharif got overzealous and decided to teach the court a lesson. Hooligans from across Punjab were bussed to Islamabad, and as the world watched in disbelief, throngs of angry men chanting slogans against the then Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Sajjad Ali Shah descended upon the Supreme Court. The Chief Justice had to run for his life and later ended up requesting the military to provide security to the country’s highest court. This tragic episode will perhaps forever tarnish Sharif’s political legacy.

Less than two years later, Sharif found himself in the midst of another high-profile standoff. This time, in the aftermath of the Kargil fiasco, he was at odds with Pervez Musharraf, the country’s Chief of Army Staff (COAS) that Sharif himself had appointed only about a year ago. Once again, in the heat of the battle, Sharif failed to keep his nerve and got overzealous. While Musharraf’s plane was midflight, Sharif not only dismissed the COAS but ordered that the plane should not be allowed to land anywhere in Pakistan. This proved to be the last nail in the coffin of the two-thirds majority; Sharif was deposed and imprisoned, and martial law was imposed.

Musharraf himself appeared to be given to overzealousness during his tumultuous tenure at the helm. When faced with Akbar Bugti, who was demanding more rights for his Baloch people, instead of engaging the elderly Baloch patriarch Musharraf thought it was wiser to kill him through a military operation in a cave in Kohlu. The entire country, specifically Balochistan and particularly the armed forces in Balochistan, continue to reel from the consequences of that display of overzealousness to this day. About a year later, Musharraf tried to overpower the fanatic Lal Masjid students and clerics with Operation Sunrise, a military operation of the kind that had never been seen in Islamabad before; dozens of students – who in all likelihood had no realistic option but to stay at the Masjid – were killed in a matter of a few hours. For several years to come, a barrage of suicide bombings and other terrorist attacks was unleashed across Pakistan to avenge the Lal Masjid killings.

In 2007, Musharraf decided to take on the then Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Chaudhary. Musharraf tried to force the CJP to resign and upon the latter’s refusal decided to fire him. In a matter of days, iconic images of Islamabad Police officials grabbing the Chief Justice by his hair, trying to shove him into a car, sparked a protest movement that even Musharraf couldn’t handle. The movement that started after Chaudhary’s unceremonious removal culminated in Musharraf being forced to resign, as the legal fraternity as well as all opposition political parties rallied behind the deposed judge. Finally, Musharraf’s overzealousness had gotten the better of him.

After PMLN’s return to power in 2013, the general perception was that the Sharifs had learnt their lesson and were now considerably more tolerant of their opponents. In June of 2014 however, all such optimism was laid to rest in Lahore. The Punjab Police, accompanied by local thugs, attacked the Minhaj ul Quran compound in the Model Town area of Lahore, killing several unarmed Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) workers whilst television cameras recorded harrowing visuals of peaceful, unarmed women being shot in their faces from point-blank range. This criminal display of Shahbaz Sharif’s overzealousness later came to be known as the Model Town massacre and provided basis for the PAT joining the Islamabad dharna of 2014, which left the Sharif government bruised and battered. To this day the sword of a damning final verdict hangs over the heads of Shahbaz Sharif, Rana Sanaullah and their accomplices.

It is in this context that the events of October 19^th should be viewed. An FIR was registered against PMLN leader Capt. (retd) Safdar for “violating the sanctity of the Quaid’s mausoleum”, and the following morning he was arrested from a Karachi hotel. The grounds for the FIR was flimsy and the entire episode appeared to be politically motivated. Following the arrest, several high-ranking Sindh police officials resigned citing pressure from “state institutions” to target the government’s political opponents. After a national outcry, the COAS had to order an inquiry into the incident, which concluded that the ISI and Rangers officials had acted “overzealously”; the officials have since been removed pending further proceedings. This episode exemplifies precisely why the government must guard against their overzealousness. Arresting Safdar brought a bad name to the government, controversialised state institutions, gave Safdar the high point of his three decades long political career and turned him into a bit of a hero as well, as much as anyone could turn Safdar into a hero.

The government must remember that all through the history of this land “overzealousness” has only been counterproductive. Whether it was Colonel Dyer in Jallianwala Bagh about a hundred years ago, Bhutto and his Federal Security Force (FSF) in the seventies, or Musharraf and Shahbaz Sharif in the more recent past, trying to overpower political opposition through wanton violence perpetrated using state machinery has only amplified dissent.

In the current situation, no amount of opposition protest can topple the government. The only way the rallies and protests can hurt the government will be if the government panics and acts overzealously, turning nonentities into heroes and adding fuel to a movement that otherwise appears destined to die a quiet death in the next few months. The parties that form the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) today, will be contesting elections against each other in less than three years. Instead of strong-arming them, the government should let the opposition parties be discredited by their own shifting stances and allegiances. The government’s finite time and energies should instead be focused towards improving governance in the country and consolidating the economic gains of the last few months.