- It will only lead to chaos
The Islamabad agreement brokered by the army with TLYR chief Khadim Hussain Rizvi took only two days to unravel. Ashraf Jalali, another claimant to the chair of the network, refused to abide by the accord on the ground that he was not taken into confidence. If the demand is accepted he is likely to come up with another. Meanwhile the sit-in on the Mall calling for Punjab law minister’s resignation is causing hardships to school going children, government employees and those working in media offices in the vicinity besides leading to the closure of a number of banks and shops on the busy artery. Another faction of the TLYR led by Ziaullah Qadri has also rejected the Faizabad agreement charging Rizvi of ‘selling the movement for Rs21.5 crore’. The network’s chapter in KP has meanwhile accused the government of underestimating the figures of casualties on the part of protesters and its chief has declared that he would lead a procession to Rawalpindi to observe Mumtaz Qadri’s death anniversary on January 4, the day Taseer was killed, instead of February 29, when Qadri was hanged. The idea: Strike when the iron is hot to get more demands accepted.
There would be no end to fresh demands accompanied by threats and more acts of public disturbance in case the state continued to yield ground. It is high time the mischief mongers are put on notice to stop resorting to lawlessness. On Thursday a bench of the Supreme Court hearing a case on disturbance of public life due to the sit-in at the Faizabad interchange made important observations. A judge said the protesters are undermining the state and its institutions, adding that the biggest crime in any society was fitna and fasad-fil-arz because it disturbed the social order. The judges asked if bloodshed was a part of our religion? The state has to realise that there is a dire need to deal with those disturbing public life in the name of religion with an iron hand. The can of worm has to be shut tight.
