The government has opted for destruction of the infrastructure of D Chowk by putting up massive containers around it
ISLAMABAD: Parliament is said to be the property of the people because they decide who should sit inside it. The worldwide trend in all democratic countries is that people move towards their parliaments for their peaceful protests to urge the government to fulfil their demands. One can take the example of Washington, DC, which routinely experiences peaceful protests and the government never bans such activities.
In ‘democratic’ Pakistan, the new ‘democratic’ step taken by our government is to seal D Chowk so that people do not have the access to parliament for their sit-ins and protests against the government.
The government’s stance that protesters, quite often, end up harming public property by their violent acts may have some validity. But is there no other option to deal with such an outcome other than banning the area for protests?
The government has opted for destruction of the infrastructure of D Chowk, its natural beauty and charming looks by putting up massive containers around it. Is this also not a big loss of public property? This unfortunate area was known as D Chowk but after the numerous sit-ins, people have been calling it ‘dharna chowk’. Now, it seems like people will call it ‘C Chowk’, with ‘C’ standing for ‘container’.
Arslan Rasheed Malik
Published in The Express Tribune, April 22nd, 2016.
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