Editorial

No winners on the ‘wall’ issue

PPP needs to understand that if walls are put in the way of the common man, then protest is an inevitable outcome.

Editorial December 30, 2013

The police were heavy-handed as usual but caught between a rock and a hard place, they could hardly ignore what was going on before their eyes. PHOTO: IRFAN ALI/EXPRESS

None of the political parties or organs of the state, emerge from the fracas around the Bilawal House in Karachi at the weekend with their integrity intact. That there would be violence was a foregone conclusion and so it proved. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had called a protest ostensibly against the blocking of roads around the Bilawal House, and specifically to demolish the wall that surrounds it. The house is the Karachi home of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who was reportedly present during the incident, and it has to be said that he has a raft of perfectly legitimate security concerns, given both his recent speech condemning terrorism and a family history of attracting a violent and untimely end.

The blocking of roads in Karachi is a hot-button issue, and not only relating to the houses of prominent political figures. The bottleneck at the Bilawal House has long been a source of frustration to the average commuter and resident, and there is an order made by the Sindh High Court that it be demolished. The order has thus far been ignored and must be adhered to. As scuffles went on, politicians from the PPP and the PTI swapped accusations about illegal constructions, shops were shuttered and the peace of a Sunday afternoon shattered. The police were heavy-handed as usual but caught between a rock and a hard place — they could hardly ignore what was going on before their eyes — and both the PPP and the PTI were at their most immature.

Local authorities have said that the wall will be demolished in phases once a permanent security apparatus is in place. Beyond that, nothing of substance was achieved. The wall at Bilawal House was never in any danger, the lives of ordinary people were disrupted and political hot-headedness came to the fore at a time when we need cool hands on the political tiller. The PTI needs to move on from knee-jerk reactions, and the PPP needs to understand that if walls are put in the way of the common man, then protest is an inevitable outcome. Nobody won the Battle of the Wall.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 31^st, 2013.

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