A year of street protests in Faisalabad

FAISALABAD:

Various groups of residents of Faisalabad took out protest on at least 563 occasions at Zila Council Chowk in 2015, a survey by The Express Tribune has found.

Doctors, paramedical staff, journalists, lawyers, political activists, religious workers as well as officials of various government departments, Faisalabad Electric Supply Company, Water and Sanitation Agency, Pakistan International Airlines protested in the area last year. Groups of citizens also staged demonstrations against doctors, alleging malpractice or negligence.

As many as 155 protest demonstrations were staged against the police. The protesters demonstrated against poor investigation, bribery, obstacles to registration of cases and police’s failure to arrest murderers and robbers. Others also protested against what they called were extra-judicial killings in fake encounters.

The district administration had banned protest rallies and demonstrations in October. The citizens, however, continued to gather in the area to protest various issues.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Rail Bazaar police spokesman Muhammad Shehzad said police teams often failed to control protestors because the protestors came in large numbers. “Policemen prefer to keep law and order under control rather than stopping citizens from gathering in the area.”

“Whenever policemen tried to stop demonstrators, they only cause an escalation. The protesters get angry and damage public and private properties. Therefore, policemen always prefer to negotiate.”

Operations SSP Irfanullah Niazi told The Express Tribune that protest was a constitutional right of the citizens.

He said there had been a 30 per cent increase in street protests during 2015.

“To respond to this, we have devised a comprehensive strategy to resolve genuine complaints of citizens. It has been noted that when a complainant is unhappy with resolution of his complaint, he is most likely to turn to his relatives and friends for support. They, in turn, take to the streets to protest a perciec.”

“We have established a central complaint cell where citizens can lodge their complaints if they are facing problems with policemen in their respective areas,” he said. He said citizens were urged to use the helpline.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 17^th, 2016.