A grave situation

An attempt by the judiciary to once again persuade both the government and PTI is unlikely to be heeded

It would appear that pleas for reason, moderation and conciliation have fallen on deaf ears regarding the developing confrontation in Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Swabi where tear gas is in the air. An attempt by the judiciary to once again persuade both the government and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf is unlikely to be heeded. The Islamabad High Court on Monday ruled that the Imran Khan led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) had every right to protest — but at a designated location because a ‘lockdown’ violated the rights of any number of people not engaged in political protest. The PTI does not have the right to disrupt the rights of the wider citizenry, a finding that we entirely endorse. For its part the government remains obdurate and not open to complying with the judiciary either — a state of affairs that bodes ill for all concerned.



The past weekend saw heads roll in the PML-N, and it is not difficult to see this as something of a loss of face for the ruling party that was under pressure from several quarters. The heads that rolled were not bit-players but party stalwarts. The justification according to the Interior Minister was that at least one of the heads that rolled did so because of a failure to prevent a journalist from Dawn writing a story that caused ripples far and wide. Other heads may not consider themselves entirely secure either, and by late afternoon on Monday 31^st October Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had appointed Maryam Aurengzeb as minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, replacing Senator Pervez Rashid.Also by late afternoon the shape of things to come was being determined as police and Frontier Constabulary personnel used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse thousands of PTI supporters who had gathered in Swabi to march on the capital, road-blocks notwithstanding.

The gravity of the crisis facing the country cannot be underestimated, and neither side in the confrontation is going to emerge with honour intact. In reality the government is unlikely to fall as a result of these sad events, but it will bear a responsibility for allowing a drama to be parlayed into a crisis to the benefit of nobody, government included.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 1^st , 2016.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.