Lahore shutdown

Peaceful it should be

The government is keen to see the business centres in Lahore open on Monday to prove that the PTI’s has flopped. It was confident that the traders in the pro-PML-N Faisalabad would not shut their businesses. The violence in the city however made the class panic and the bazaars closed down in no time. In Karachi, the markets remained shut for fear of a repetition of what had happened in Faisalabad. The government has reportedly deployed 200 cameramen to catch every moment of PTI’s Lahore shutdown. The traders have presumably assured the government that they would keep their shops open to allow it to show on the media that the markets were doing business as usual. This would also expose, if not deter, any forced closures or resort to violence by the PTI.

During the Gen Zia referendum it was possible to show on PTV pictures of long queues of voters keenly awaiting the opening of fictitious booths, manufactured by the agencies a day earlier. With government monopoly over electronic media ending and dozens of private news channels reporting events round the clock, neither the government nor the PTI can get away with false claims about the situation on ground.

In Faisalabad the PML-N was held responsible for bringing in its activists to counter the PTI shutdown. After burning its fingers the former has directed party lawmakers to remain behind the scenes on the day. Hopefully it has also given the same advice to its workers.

While repeating as usual that he would not force any trader to close shop, Imran Khan has appealed to the Lahore business community to abide by his call for one day if they wanted change in the country. One expects that the PTI leadership would keep under check its hyper active enthusiasts. National economy has already suffered a lot from these shutdowns. The PTI has to realise that the traders as well as the common people who suffer from the closures may not vote for it.