Protest against energy crisis: When the lion roars and nobody cares
Unlike Lahore, Rawalpindi’s response to a call to rally against increasing power outages and fuel prices was decidedly lukewarm.
The administration had siphoned off access to Mareer Chowk on the Benazir Bhutto Road in anticipation of the rally.
The local Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders were expecting between 10,000 to 15,000 participants, but the actual number of people that showed up, at a lenient 2,000, was much less. Rawalpindi is considered to be the party’s stronghold.
Even so, amid tight security, protesters denounced the Pakistan Peoples Party-led government and their policies with full-throated slogans such as “Bhutto’s son-in-law has killed the entire nation by surging prices of daily use items”, “Go Zardari Go” and “Stop killing poor people in the name of taxes”.
Addressing the rally near Mareer Chowk, PML-N MPAs denounced erroneous policies of the federal government, blaming Zardari for “all the bad things happening to the country”.
They said that the recent surge in petroleum products has hit the poorer population hard as people have committed suicide because of hunger and unemployment, adding that prolonged power cuts have “doubled their miseries”.
Participants of the rally demanded that the government withdraw the hike in prices of petroleum products and CNG or else PML-N would start a country-wide protest.
Lacklustre response
Observers to the protest termed it a lacklustre affair. Though the local PML-N leadership followed the directions of party leader Nawaz Sharif, they were unable to gather enough strength to show their power. One possible reason for the less-than-expected response could be the government’s decision on Tuesday to revise petroleum products’ rates. The price of petrol was cut down by Rs2.23 per litre, diesel by Rs1.16 per litre and CNG by Rs1.95 per kilogram.
Troubled traffic
The busy road was blocked by the city district government along with city traffic police during the protest. Their barricades contributed to the traffic speed coming to a snarl, with commuters and pedestrians being equally troubled. Police officials exchanged many-a-hot-words with motorists at blocked junctures.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 5th, 2012.
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1722596924-0/BeFunky-collage-(25)1722596924-0-270x192.webp "rapper future gets emotional over drake collaboration during we trust in you tour kickoff")
Paper tigers are riding the Samjhota Express.....while their poor workers are asked to come on the street to protest
Who is responsible for this, indeed this is a serious issue, people are commuting suicide for not making their daily lives