The collective from the fringe-right seemed to have all but fizzled out till they made an announcement, recently, that they were going to have a long march on the 27th in protest of the possible (imminent) resumption of the Nato supply routes.
There are many different interpretations to the present situation. One that finds currency with those not too enamoured by the establishment says that the group has been decommissioned, as it were, by the deep state and what remains of it are the lot that doesn’t really know what to do. After all, goes the reasoning, the resumption of the supply routes is all but inevitable after the Chicago conference and the military has given a quiet consent to this. If this approach to understanding the issue is correct, then the deep state shouldn’t want any opposition to the resumption that might embarrass it. Especially by a pressure group perceived by many to be backed by it.
Interesting is the stance of the “plausible right” like the PML(N) and the PTI. The latter’s chief has excused himself to go to London on important business while the League has decided to go relatively silent on the issue. By this point in time, perhaps everyone but the fringe realises what thin ice Pakistan is on, as a member of the comity of nations. Not many are sympathetic to our stance, fewer still, would be pushed to back us on any forum, and this includes time-tested friends like China. Even the Jamaat-e-Islami, which contests elections keenly, has been reached out to by the government, with the interior minister meeting the party’s leader.
The DPC, barring one or two members, doesn’t have much prospects electorally and can afford to take irresponsible stances. If the collective has a point of view about the Nato supply routes, they are well within their right to protest, providing they don’t break the law. But we don’t have to wait till the DPC starts rowdyism to interfere: as it is, the law of the land is being broken, specifically the Anti Terror Act of 1997, which does not allow leaders of banned outfits to address rallies.
Some arrests, we believe, are long overdue.