Ruling party also needs to display tolerance and restraint
The PTI leadership needs to cast a critical eye at the behaviour of its cadres ever since the general elections of May 11 and the August 22 by-elections. The PTI holds out a great promise for the country. It has introduced a much needed new element in the realm of national politics, a third force that is neither extra-constitutional nor wears shiny boots. Therefore much is expected of it now and in the future as its membership largely comprises the idealistic youth which is educated, social-media savvy and capable of debating national issues in a calm and dispassionate manner. But this is exactly what it is not doing. Its workers have started resorting to violence on the streets, something that is not, or should not be, in character for the reason mentioned above.
The recent pictures of the familiar ‘lathi’ charge and the pushing and shoving of protestors into the back of waiting vans culminating in a final smart cuff by one or the other heroes of the Punjab Police, no angels themselves, bring the PTI and its image into disrepute before a national audience. It has to be said that the PML-N government in Punjab should have displayed more tolerance and restraint and not allowed the Lahore administration to use its usual tactics in breaking up a protest – something that even the PM has quite rightly directed it desist from. But it is time that the PTI leadership altered its strategy from its present ‘oppositionist’ mindset to one that encompasses a future national leadership role. It is, after all, ruling in one of the most troubled provinces. Therefore the calls for ‘dharnas’ must cease and recourse taken to the peaceful settlement of its grievances, in the present instance, by going to the Election Commission of Pakistan rather than taking to the streets. The DHA dharna in Lahore backfired when the local residents fed up with road blockades forced the demonstrators to break up their congregation.
Even if to PTI’s view there was something a little fishy in the general elections and the biggest by-elections in the country’s history, hopefully the evil is expected to lessen with each election as its cadres grow more aware and street smart to the wiles of the old-school politicos. Perhaps the PTI’s win after recounting in one of the national constituencies of Karachi influenced its post-election strategy to an unusual degree. But if the end result is the manhandling in Lahore of a photo journalist, who was merely doing his job, and which resulted in his hospitalization, it is time Imran Khan took decisive action in order to prevent future unsavoury actions and to preserve his party’s particular reputation. Street scuffles and violence should not be its forte in future, or it might impact adversely in the minds of so far sympathetic people and more ominously on its own fate in future polls.
