The crisis emanating from the government’s desire to steamroller the privatisation of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is only getting worse, as the government’s inept and callous handling of the matter is akin to pouring oil on a fire. What was simply a peaceful protest by PIA employees in Karachi turned into a deathly conflict. As the workers chanted slogans outside the cargo terminal of the Jinnah International Airport, the police and Rangers subjected the advancing protestors to baton charges, water cannons, tear gas shells and rubber bullets. However, during the chaos some hitherto unknown members of the law enforcement agencies (LEAs) shockingly fired live rounds directly at the protestors. This highly condemnable and exasperating use of deadly force killed three PIA employees and injured several others. While neither the police nor the Rangers are ready to accept responsibility for the deaths, eyewitnesses put the blame on the latter. The news of this ghastly use of force quickly spread and enraged PIA employees throughout the country. In the wake of the killings, and despite the Prime Minister’s (PM) invocation of the anti-union Essential Services Maintenance Act, they announced a countrywide strike that has resulted in an indefinite suspension of flights. Consequent to this loss of life, the chairman of PIA Nasser Jaffer, evidently overcome with guilt, stepped down from his post. Small wonder, however, that the government’s response to this tragedy has been cold-hearted and callous. The PM, while visiting a coal-fired power plant, maintained a tough and uncompromising position vis-a-vis the protest and stated that striking PIA workers would be fired and jailed. In the same breath he employed the classic strike-breaking tactic of offering special rewards to scabs. High ranking ministers of the government went further than their PM. Minister of Information Pervez Rashid, in particular, first termed the strikers as “enemies of Pakistan” and later made allusions to a conspiracy being hatched against the government by claiming that “blood of innocent protestors was shed in Karachi to make the ‘failed protest’ of [PIA] employees successful”. The rhetoric coming out from the PML-N camp makes it painfully clear that the top brass of the ruling party has let its paranoia blind it to the ground realities. This myopia enables the PM and his top lieutenants to rationalise the logical upshot of their staggering missteps as a product of a coordinated sabotage being carried out by the opposition parties.
As things stand, there is a palpable risk of further (deadly) confrontation on the horizon. The mystery surrounding the deaths of the PIA workers reeks of a cover up. Even if, as the LEAs claim, none of their men fired the fatal shots, the competence of the forces present at the scene is to be questioned since they let shooters get away in broad daylight despite heavy deployment. A judicial inquest must be conducted to get to the bottom of this. In parliament, opposition parties stand united in condemning the government’s handling of the matter and are calling for a parliamentary inquiry. They upheld the right of citizens to hold peaceful protests and decried the government’s “dictatorial” approach and side-stepping of democratic procedures. The response of the government to this charge has been to cite Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s usage of similar tactics against PIA in 1976, which is a remarkably juvenile line of defence. Elsewhere, labour unions of other governmental organisations (WAPDA and Railways) have also begun to join in the protests against privatisation in solidarity with the PIA employees after the deaths. Leaders of labour movements, rights activists and opposition politicians have all been galvanised by the government’s tactics. In other words, the stage is set for an all out revolt against the government as the ruling party continues to dig its own grave by relying on heavy-handed devices and failing to evolve as a party sensitive to the mores of a democratic society, where voices of dissent are not only normal but healthy. It is another matter entirely that privatisation is not the panacea it is advertised as. Past experience tells us that privatisation as it is practiced in Pakistan is mired i lack of transparency and a lack of means to ensure private corporations abide by contracts. No one denies PIA is in need of an overhaul, but the smart strategy would not be ramming privatisation down the throats of PIA workers. There is an acceptable standard to these things, and it involves getting the consent of all stakeholders and assuring them their concerns will be addressed. The only way the government can get itself out of this hole is if it lets its stubborn obsession to privatise subside and gives the PIA workers the chance to turn things around.
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