Is Pakistan’s ‘Capitol Hill moment’ on the cards?

Unprecedented schisms and political brinkmanship buffeting the political landscape have fuelled fears that the situation is fast teetering on the edge of Pakistan’s own ‘Capitol Hill moment’, a potential recipe for chaos and mayhem.

The chances of witnessing an attack like the Capitol Hill in the United States are looming large in Pakistan as the ruling and the opposition parties have already announced to besiege the Parliament building with roughly three million people when the lawmakers would go for voting on the no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan. 

A mob of roughly 2,000–2,500 supporters of ex-US President Donald Trump had attacked the Capitol Building in Washington D.C. on January 6, 2021, seeking to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election by disrupting the joint session of Congress assembled to count electoral votes that would formalise President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.

However, this would not be the first occasion when the Red Zone of Islamabad is expected to turn into a battleground. If it happens, it will be redux of the violence witnessed at the same place during the 2014 sit-ins of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT). 

Interestingly, the prime suspects of the attack on the parliament and PTV building are currently the president, prime minister and are holding key positions in the federal cabinet and are backing the idea of holding the rally on the eve of the no-trust motion – leaving little to the imagination what may transpire on March 27 and 28 when the voting is expected on the motion in the National Assembly.

'PM planning attack on parliament'

Seeing the definite failure to defend the no-confidence motion, PML-N senior leader Ahsan Iqbal claimed that PM Imran was once again planning an attack on the parliament just like US President

Trump stormed the Congress after not acknowledging the results of the presidential election. “Trump failed, Imran Niazi will also fail,” Iqbal said. 

PPP’s Senator Sherry Rehman also echoed Ahsan's apprehensions and said that threatening to hold a rally at D-Chowk to hinder parliamentarians from voting in the VONC is an outrageous act. She wondered that if the government claims to have a majority in the NA then why is it panicking and trying to resort to mob violence. 

In a blatant attempt to subvert the constitution to hang on to power, Rehman said, PTI was willing to cross all democratic red lines. “This desperation to hang on to office is sad,” she added. 

Asked to comment on the imminent danger of mob violence, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry was not immediately available to respond. 

Days after the opposition parties submitted the no-trust motion, the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was the first one to announce that it was preparing to stage a one-million strong rally at Islamabad’s D-Chowk on the eve of the opposition’s no-trust motion in the lower house of parliament. 

Noticeably, the direction to gather a ‘sea of people’ right outside the Parliament building in the Red Zone has come from none other than the Prime Minister and echoed by key cabinet ministers with veiled threats that the lawmakers might have to face mob violence if they go for voting against PM Imran. 

In response to PTI’s announcement of holding a one-million strong power show at D-Chowk, Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) also announced staging a grand power show with a rally of two million people at the federal capital’s Constitution Avenue area against the PTI-led government.

The announcements from the mainstream parties have come on the heels of a police raid at the parliament lodges after JUI-F’s force Ansarul Islam entered the premises to provide protection to lawmakers on the pretext that they might be kidnapped. 

The visuals that ensued were subsequent police action, scuffles that broke out, hurling of abusive language and how lawmakers were dragged and arrested.

Now, it’s not hard to imagine if a charged crowd of three million people really gathers right outside the parliament building confronting the dissenting MNAs or the opposition at or around D-Chowk and in the streets; it would surely put lives and property at risk.  

Picturing the imminent danger, the political analysts say that filing of no-trust motion and gathering of people are equally legal, fundamental and constitutional steps but there should be efforts from both sides to lower the confrontational politics instead of going head-on just for political gains at a far bigger cost.