Preparing for November 2
In matters related to determining the legality of an action the only umpires recognised by the constitution are the courts. Organising protest marches is no doubt a right of the political parties. Equally important is the obligation to ensure that these do not put curbs on the rights of those not participating in them. Among the things that have to be shared with the administration is the route of a march or the venue of a sit-in and the time it will take to end. There is however no place in democracy for a dharna aimed at blocking the roads of a city and that too for days, thus restricting the movement of the population and stopping the children from attending the schools.
The verdict delivered by Islamabad High Court bars both the government and the PTI from blocking the arteries of Islamabad either by containers and by police personnel or by the activists of the PTI. The PTI has already unfolded plans to block all these arteries to ensure a lockdown of the capital. It has also revealed plans to counter police violence with retaliation by specially trained groups of activists. The language being used by Khan about almost every politician opposing the sit-in, belonging to the ruling party or the opposition, was creating an environment where clashes were imminent. The statement by a party leader about the need for offering blood to bring change causes doubts about the protest remaining peaceful
The ruling party should avoid playing the Russian roulette which is harmful for the system. The government’s relations with the army are less than cordial after the delay in unearthing the source of the ‘sensitive’ leak to a newspaper reporter. The government is not only confronting the PTI but also the rest of the opposition. There is a need on it part to accept the ToRs suggested by the PPP for a way out of the crisis.