End of ‘Azadi March’

PTI supporters stayed put for over four months while the JUI-F protest ran out of fire in under two weeks

The JUI-F’s Azaadi March has come and gone after less than two weeks, with the party chief now claiming that the protests will spread onto highways nationwide. How much truth there is to that claim remains to be seen. Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s march failed for several reasons. For one, despite having the ability to pull thousands onto the streets through his party’s madrassah network, major opposition parties only offered lip service support to the protest. Fazl’s frequent use, or abuse, of the religion card in the past alienated many of PTI opponents. His party’s anti-women positions cut out any liberal support. There is also criticism of his demands for the prime minister’s resignation and for fresh elections, even though the PTI had made similar demands in 2014.

Fresh elections were always a non-starter, and a PM actually resigning due to opposition political parties protesting would set an undemocratic precedent. The fate of the PM should, ideally, be decided at the ballot box alone. A point must also be made about this trend of long-delayed protests against alleged external interference in elections and various perceived slights. We have seen a few politicians who were willing to take a stand on such issues immediately after the polls closed, or sometimes even earlier. They clearly stood for the integrity of the elections. What we have been seeing on the streets of Islamabad over the last two weeks are those who only protested after realising that they wouldn’t be getting any portion of the pie of power.

Much as independents derided the PTI’s dharnas as only being about the party and perceived slights against it, rather than the country, many would take pause before supporting Fazl, a man whose most famous nickname is synonymous with long-running allegations of corruption against him. In neither case did it really appear as if the demands of the protesters would be met, and the leaders were eventually left looking for exit strategies. The PTI, however, clearly had the more charismatic leader — his supporters stayed put for over four months — while the JUI-F protest ran out of fire in under two weeks.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 15^th, 2019.

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