The double-barrel sit-in at Islamabad’s D-square which had
started as Freedom and Revolution marches from Lahore has completed six
eventful weeks, but little progress has been seen in the realization of its
objectives.
Imran Khan
whose party Tehreek-e-Insaaf had received the second highest number of votes
but relatively fewer seats in the last general election has a clear-cut agenda
based on his grievance of election rigging by the ruling party PMLN of Nawaz
Sharif in May,
2013 general elections. He had to come out on the streets after all his
attempts to get justice from the election Commission and the Superior judiciary
were thwarted.
One of the most serious allegations also witnessed by the
whole nation is that while the votes were still being counted and election
results being compiled, Mr.
Nawaz Sharif appeared on Geo TV and claimed that the channel had convinced
him that his party was winning the largest number of seats in the National
assembly and was going to be the next prime minister. Surprisingly, he also
expressed his desire to have an absolute majority and appealed to some
undefined audience to give him the required number of seats. Since his party
had been ruling the Punjab for the last 5 years as well as for decades earlier,
most provincial employees involved in the electoral process were handpicked by
the Nawaz family, so the hint was obvious and was likely to have influenced the
results. As it happened, results in many constituencies defied the trends they
were following before the ‘victory speech’. Mr. Sharif’s action was highly objectionable
and if the Election Commission had gall enough it should have disqualified him
then and there. Unofficial reports indicate that if a genuine and proper audit
of votes is carried out a number of sitting ministers in Mr. Sharif’s cabinet
will be disqualified.
Prior to the march on 14th August, 2014, Mr.
Sharif had met Mr. Khan at the latter’s residence and offered him deputy-prime-minister’s
unconventional position in return for abandoning the vote audit demand. It
seems to have infuriated the Khan who now would not agree to anything less than
Mr. Sharif’s resignation and more and more Pakistanis are agreeing with him as
time passes.
The Revolution march of Allama Tahirul
Qadri’s objectives seem rather vague except that he advocated a puritanical
though modern Islamic system of government and wants the whole political system
to be wrapped up and reorganized. Mr. Sharif and many other PMLN leaders were
fervent followers of Mr. Qadri and his Barelvi sect prior to Mr. Sharif’s deportation
to Saudi Arabia who now seem to have changed their allegiance to the Saudi
supported Deobandi sect.
The recent movement started after a police invasion of his
headquarters in Lahore in which some 14 people were shot dead and over 80
injured by gunshots at chest level. The government tried to cover up the issue
as the incident report of the police did not mention any fatalities and the
families of the dead were offered Rs. 3 million each in blood money and also handsome
compensation to the injured. The victims’ families spurned the offers and
demand due legal process including the registration of complaints as they saw
it.
The unprecedented police brutality seems to have two
possible motivations. It is possible that the Punjab administration had thought
that the recently enacted Protection of Pakistan Ordinance which gives
permission to police to shoot to kill without prior authorization when faced
with armed terrorists could be twisted to justify any oppressive activity. The
second is the possibility that the government of Punjab has made peace with the
Punjabi Taliban by recruiting a few thousand of their unemployed youth in the
police and the incident may have had a sectarian aspect. However the sectarian
possibility has been sensibly ignored by everyone and although it should be
kept at the back of the mind it should not be highlighted or exploited for
political purposes. In any case, the incident reflects the utter failure of the
Punjab provincial administration and the chief-minister should have resigned
before being asked to do so.
