PAKISTAN: The PML-N government is still playing ‘it’s-not-us’ game - Inadequate response

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The appointment of a Judicial Commissions to probe the Tuesday killings of PAT workers is widely being interpreted as a ploy to calm down the PAT workers rather than punish the culprits. The announcement has failed to satisfy even the legal community as the province-wide protest by lawyers at the call of the Punjab Bar Council would indicate.

Two incidents on Monday and Tuesday have raised questions about the role of the government in the brutality committed on the PAT workers. The live video of a man reportedly close to the PML-N, who broke the windscreens and window panes of cars belonging to PAT workers under the supervision of the police, was shown by the private TV channels. There are rumours regarding pressure being exerted on doctors to change the medicolegal reports. The presence of a police officer on Tuesday in the concerned Medical Superintendent’s office in the latter’s absence was interpreted by the media as a move to change the reports.

The government still fails to realise the seriousness of what it allowed to happen outside the PAT chief’s residence. It is free to bury its head in the sand but it will do so at great risk to itself. Nobody is likely to be satisfied by feigned ignorance on the part of the chief minister. It is difficult to believe that police would have shot to kill the protestors on its own. This could not have happened without encouragement, if not directives, from some of the higher-ups. To enjoy a modicum of credibility, the government has to make some heads roll. Unless it does so, the protests are likely to spread far and wide.

It is understandable on the part of the opposition to condemn police high-handedness. While doing so the opposition parties must ensure that they do nothing that provides anyone an excuse to wind up the system. The baby must not be thrown out with the bath water.