As long as it’s peaceful…
On Friday, the DPC failed to mobilise anyone other than its hardcore workers against the reopening of the GLOCs. Its leaders addressed Friday sermons, each one in the mosque of his peculiar sect. They also took out processions in a few cities. They concentrated on Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. No significant activity on their part was however reported from interior Sindh or Balochistan. The show of strength would largely depend on the funds at the disposal of rightist alliance. A thousand buses carrying twenty people each will create an illusion of a million march if everyone is supplied a flag and half of the occupants are seated on the top of every bus.
The PML(N) and PTI have both criticised the decision to open the Nato supply lines. They argue that the decision violates parliament’s decision which required the fulfilment of a number of preconditions, the end to drone attacks being one. In Lahore, lawyers too boycotted the courts on Friday as a mark of protest and demanded that government hold a referendum on the reopening of the GLOCs. That a day after the supply route was reopened, over 20 people died in a drone attack would provide government critics enough material to put it on the mat. It goes to the credit of both Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan however that they kept themselves aloof from the move. Their support for the march would have strengthened the perception that a conspiracy to upset the system was afoot. They have thus taken a populist stand in the election year without being a part of a move that could destabilise the government.
Every organisation has a right to protest as long as it remains peaceful. The DPC’s detractors accuse it of being the political wing of the militant organisations involved in insurgency in the tribal areas and terrorist attacks in the rest of the country. Some of its components are in fact banned outfits with new brand names. DPC’s apologists argue that they should be encouraged to join the mainstream. Neither the federal government nor the provincial administrations have created any hurdle in the way of the DPC in line with the democratic traditions which allow everyone to protest as long as the activity remains within the law and does not create public disturbance. Advisor to PM on Interior Affairs Rehman Malik has said that he has no objection to a peaceful protest. One hopes that the march will fulfil the requirement. Any recourse to violence by the protestors would lead many to conclude that this was done with encouragement from some powerful circle.