The recent incidents of a seemingly planned and well-orchestrated violence leading to vandalism, acts of arson and ransacking of state buildings including the Radio Pakistan Peshawar’s historic building and Corps Commander Lahore’s residence also known as Jinnah House Lahore following the arrest of PTI Chairman Imran Khan, come as a rude shock for every Pakistani with even a modicum of patriotism in him. This kind of violent acts on the part of a political party activists are unprecedented in the political history of Pakistan and extremely condemnable, and are considered not less than an attack on the sovereignty of the state.
The violent protests accompanied by rioting, arson and vandalism as mentioned earlier come on the heels of a video message by Imran Khan a day before his arrest and occur at a time when the country is struggling for economic survival and fighting a firece battle against the terrorists belonging to a banned outfit, TTP who have once again made a resurgence and are carrying out terrorist activities in different parts of the country including bomb blasts killing innocent civilians and destroying both public and private properties, and attacking the security forces killing them day in and day out.
In such a dicey economic and security situation, the recent incidents of violence carried out by the activists of a political party allegedly at the behest of its leadership has added fuel to the fire. The protest could have been registered in an orderly and civilized manner instead of resorting to violence and rioting. It has provided an opportunity to our arch-enemy to laugh up her sleeve and capitalize on the dismal security situation and political polarization gripping the country and the hatred that has been fostered in the public mind against the security forces.
What we have been witnessing during the past one year has done a damage of biblical proportions to the country in terms of economic loss and also in the shape of poisoning public mind and creating hatred, spite and prejudice against the armed forces thereby making an attempt to create a wide chasm between security forces and the public without realizing that they are hitting at the very root of a force which is the sole guarantor of the security of our beloved motherland. Such unscrupulous elements irrespective of which party they belong to are unwittingly acting as the enemy’s cat’s paw and playing into their hands thereby helping them achieve their long-cherished objectives without fighting a formal war.
The recent planned and synchronized attack by violent protesters on different defence installations across the country seem to indicate that the attack was craftily designed to incite the security personnel on duty to show intense reaction and kill a few violent protesters thereby eliciting the wrath of the public at large which mercifully, was handled intelligently and with restraint, maturity and professionalism by the security forces thereby thwarting the evil designs of the shrewd schemers. It was a well-planned strategy to pit the security forces against the public that failed due to an intelligent handling of the situation on the part of the security personnel on duty.
As if that wasn’t sufficient, some of PTI second-tier leadership with hawkish posture appearing on TV talk shows were seen brazenly disowning broad daylight terrorism committed by their party activists which was difficult to deny even by those who are ordinarily found defending what all is being done by PTI’s die-hard supporters, and were heard as saying that PTI had nothing to do with what all had happened.
Such are the elements who have been misleading Imran Khan and have prevailed upon him to say and act what he shouldn’t say and do as a former prime minister and head of a political party. Imran Khan must realize that the recent incidents of violence committed by his political activists have done an irreparable damage to his politics, but the spin doctors are constantly keeping him in the dark and giving him “sub achha report/all ok report” painting the situation as favourable or less damaging.
In the ongoing political battle between the PDM and the PTI, the country has suffered a lot. Political parties belonging to both sides need to realize that the slippery slope which they have chosen to embark on can only result in a fiasco for all of them.
Quite amusingly, during the hearing yesterday when one of the honourable judges of the SC asked Imran Khan about the violence carried out across the country, he as usual, feigning customary innocence expressed his ignorance about what all had happened thereby prompting the honourable judge to say that being head of the party he (Khan) can’t disown responsibility.
As for Imran Khan’s arrest duly endorsed by Islamabad High Court and his dramatic release after two days, the less said the better. It has raised many eyebrows. However, the honourable judges who have pronounced the judgement know it better than anyone else because they are the final authority. I would only say that on the face of it, for a common man, it has firmly established the already prevalent impression that there are two different laws operating in the country, one is for the weak and the other is for the powerful and the mighty. Right or wrong, the open criticism by political leaders belonging to PDM of the SC’s decision reversing IHC’s judgement, says it all.
Lastly, how unfortunate it’s to see the enemy rejoicing over the mayhem created by PTI activists, taking law in their own hands and targeting our defence installations thus providing our enemy an opportunity to celebrate the unfortunate events that happened on May 9 which will be remembered as a black day in the country’s history. An unprecedented jubilation is seen in different cities of India. What our enemy couldn’t do in 75 years has been done by PTI workers just in two days.