Pakistan: PML-N shoots itself in the foot again

Mess after mess

The PML-N has again displayed total inefficacy in handling a situation politically. Tahirul Qadri’s Pakistan Awami Tehrik (PAT) was within its right to hold protest as long as it did not break any law. Heavens would not have fallen if PAT had been allowed to march from Islamabad to Lahore. The government acted in a way that indicated a state of panic. It relied on extreme administrative measures to stop the party from holding the protest. It should have instead held talks with the PAT soon after the Model Town incident to bring the temperature down. Subsequently it should have held parleys to ensure that there was no untoward incident after Qadri’s arrival. It opted instead for measures reminiscent of dictatorial regimes, like blocking of roads in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, closure of the airport, arrests, baton charges and tear gassing by police and the weirdest of all, the diversion of the Emirates’ international flight from Islamabad to Lahore. That mediation by Governor Sindh brought to a peaceful end the hours-long standoff at Lahore airport indicates things could have been resolved through talks much earlier.

The PML-N in fact created a crisis out of a non-event. The brutal police attack on PAT office in Model Town, conducted without any provocation and which led to the killing of nine party workers put the government on the defensive while it created a wave of sympathy for the PAT. Unless the PML-N government learns to resolve political differences through talks, it might end up antagonising the entire opposition before long.

Tahirul Qadri has declared that he has finally returned to Pakistan to take part in politics. He must have realised by now the futility of calls on army. What he is yet to understand is that real change can be brought only through elections, and not through any other method. What is more, parliamentary democracy requires give and take rather than an inflexible attitude.