- Rethinking things?
PTI seems to have just had the delayed realisation that the way it negotiated an end to the recent TLP dharna was not, perhaps, the smartest way to handle the situation. This dharna was of a different nature than the Faizabad disaster. For one thing, it was not the result of some changes on the oath of parliament, etc, but rather in reaction to a landmark Supreme Court acquittal. And it is one of the sitting government’s duties, after all, to implement the Honourable Court’s verdicts. For another, this one featured the kind of incitement to murder – the country’s top judges, no less – unconstitutional overthrow of government and mutiny in the army that invite a quite unambiguous response from the law. Then there’s the loss to public and private property that, again, the government is responsible for. Yet they were let off with an apology in case anybody’s sentiments were hurt.
Recent about turns on part of PTI give the impression that even senior party ministers cannot function properly in the absence of the prime minister. And, reports suggest, it was only when Imran Khan expressed displeasure with the government’s performance that a new strategy was adopted. Information Minister Fawad Chaudhary has said that neither the remarks against judges, government and military, nor damage to property will go unanswered. Better late than never, so the government’s new position welcomed with the hope that there will be no more changes. If remarks by journalists and civil society activists can lead to talk and even charges of treason then how can far more blatant threats go unanswered?
The government must not just ensure that this particular confrontation ends peacefully, in full accordance with the law, but also that nobody dares take the law in their own hands in the future as well. There is not just the naked violation of the law, but also misery and financial loss for people and the exchequer. It is now for the government to play its hand effectively.
