EDITORIAL: #Pakistan - Islamabad protest

Carrying the message right to the centre of the country, thousands of employees belonging to various ministries of the federal government assembled in Islamabad on Wednesday with a plan to march on the parliament. And the state heard their message loud and clear. When thought to be getting a little too close for comfort, police officials tried to disperse the crowd using tear gas canisters and even resorting to baton-charge. What a spectacular display of (mis)using power!

Swarms of discontented employees have been pressing for reasonable compensation for quite some time now. Across the country, the public servants were gathering under the umbrella of All Government Employees Grand Alliance for upgradation in their salaries. In light of the soaring prices of everyday essentials, these employees could not be called out for making unreasonable demands. It has actually become tremendously hard to manage a straitened budget.

As per Pakistan’s constitution (Article 16, 17 and 19) as well as Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 19 and 20), the protestors were well-within their rights to stage demonstrations for their legitimate demands and expected an ear from the state. Whether the government was ready to satisfy their requests, the least it could do was not create war-like conditions in the Red Zone. Security personnel should have been better trained to operate in favour of facilitating peace protests, not provoking violence. Utter chaos ensued when protestors retaliated to tear-gas with stones whilst government employees were seen running everywhere for cover. Ergo, another protest gone wrong at the behest of some officers willing to jump the gun.

Some media outlets are talking about expired canisters that were fired at the protestors. If what is being said about the shells (used beyond their shelf life and despite written warnings that they should not be fired directly at people) holds any weight, the authorities should launch an immediate investigation. Already one policeman has died after developing breathing difficulties in the demonstration. The tear gas shells could have claimed many more lives.

It is particularly interesting to note that only a day after the capital saw one group of government employees have a go at another, the official committee approved a 25 per cent increase in salaries of federal employees. Instead of letting the event spiral out of control, the state could have enjoyed an upper-hand narrative if it had acted a little earlier. This is something Islamabad clearly needs to work at. With ministers busy harking to their own tunes, a cohesive response–especially to a time-constrained decision–is usually missing. Even if the government was unable to provide relief to protestors belonging to provincial departments, it would have been ideal to sit at the deliberation table with the federal employees and direct the provincial authorities to do the same with their people. The protestors have left for now but if not given the relief they have been promised, they could return soon. Probably at a scale much, much bigger than the baton could manage!

https://dailytimes.com.pk/722870/islamabad-protest/