After the government’s consistent inability to fathom the magnitude of the issue of Pakistan International Airlines’s (PIA’s) privatisation and address the genuine grievances of the various stakeholders, especially the PIA workers, the matter has inevitably blown up in the government’s face, with a clash between the security forces and the protesting PIA union members, leaving two PIA employees dead and several injured. On February 1, Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif enforced the Essential Services (Maintenance) Act 1952 for six months on PIA, criminalising any union activity on pain of one year’s imprisonment and fines in a failed attempt to halt the protest announced by the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the PIA unions. Following this, during the protest on February 2, PIA employees as well as journalists were subjected to baton-charging, tear gas shells and water cannons as the police and Rangers attempted to disperse the protesters to prevent them reaching the Jinnah Terminal of Karachi Airport, and later the Sindh Assembly. During the peaceful protest, which included women, children and the elderly, the forces opened fire to halt the protesters’ progress. Reports state two protesters succumbed to their injuries after bullets were fired, while some others are in critical condition. However, the Sindh Rangers spokesperson and the DIG Karachi East have denied firing at the protesters. PML-N Senator Mushahidullah Khan had on January 29 announced the postponement of privatisation for six months, while threatening that the union must resume work or face the wrath of the provisions of the Essential Services Act. However, even after the February 1 announcement, the Chairman of JAC maintained that protests will proceed since the government had still not called-off the privatisation as demanded, and were instead trying to buy time for its implementation. Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid also tactlessly stated that anyone who continues to protest will not only lose their job but be treated as enemies of PIA and Pakistan. He said back-up arrangements of pilots and engineering staff will ensure unhindered services. But due to the harsh mishandling of the protesters, the conflict has escalated and continues, leading to the closure of several principal airports including Lahore and Peshawar, as well as the obstruction of several flights at Karachi airport.
The severity that this conflict over PIA’s privatisation has acquired is another clear example of the leadership’s remiss and witless manner of governing. The government created this issue firstly by announcing privatisation in a hasty manner, closing their eyes in hopes of sidestepping the opposition they were inevitably going to face. Then they tried to justify the privatisation of the national flag-carrier with immense strategic importance with sketchy reasons that clearly betrayed self-serving motivations, including pleasing the IMF that has been exerting pressure to accelerate privatisation. Since then, the government, wearing ideological blinkers, has taken an increasingly stern and unsympathetic stance. It is beyond comprehension how the government planned on solving the matter by dangling the sword of imprisonment over the workers while ignoring their demands. The final nail in the coffin of the government’s ill-advised course may have been hammered in with the extremely tragic violence against and deaths of some peaceful protestors who were left at the mercy of the law enforcement agencies, who did not even spare journalists in their sweep. The Rangers and police’s incompetence in crowd control has been highlighted in incidents over and over again, where their use of brutal force, under the conviction that they can harm anyone who disobeys them, has claimed many lives in the past too. The coercive measures of the government have created this mess but it seems they are unaware of the enormity of the problems that lie ahead, since now it is not only the unions they have to face. The bloodshed in Karachi has mobilised and united the political opposition too, with the PTI calling for a countrywide protest from February 6. While the PM claims he is unafraid of any such measures, it would do him well to recall the state Imran Khan’s protest had landed him in last time. The government must ready itself for the withdrawal of the concessions it has been enjoying from the opposition in the latter’s hope of establishing a strong democracy, and that it had been taking advantage of, but may no longer be available.
No comments:
Post a Comment