Daily Times

Imran Khan was at his populist best as he addressed a crowd in the PPP’s backyard with a massive rally in Larkana on Friday. Backtracking from statements in Punjab where he said that the Kalabagh Dam was a necessity, he assured the crowd that no plans for the dam would be finalised without Sindh’s consent. Taking into account Sindh’s multi-faith character, he refrained from his usual religious references and instead said that Hindus and Christians in Sindh, who form substantial minorities, would be taken care of in a Naya (new) Pakistan. He also said that he would never allow Sindh to be divided into smaller provinces. The tailored remarks gained appreciation from the crowd, but even were Imran pandering to them and drifting away from previously articulated positions, the response and the size of the rally are a sign of the widespread dissatisfaction with the PPP-led Sindh government even within its stronghold. The provincial government has been roundly, and rightly, criticised because of the continuing famine in Tharparkar that it has failed to contain. Imran capitalised on this dissatisfaction with a stream of platitudes and condemnations. His appeal in places that are considered strongholds of other parties should be a wake up call for the PPP to take Imran’s political challenge seriously and improve its governance drastically or it may not even remain a regional Sindhi party.

The federal government on the other hand is taking the PTI’s challenge very seriously, though for different reasons. It seems determined to prevent a repeat of the damage done in August and on Friday promulgated an Ordinance to prevent gatherings of more than five people in the Red Zone, with violators facing fines and prison terms. What became clear in August was that several thousand people peacefully protesting are not many, but the same number of people rioting is a great many and the government is concerned that Khan is gearing up his supporters for violence. Khan has often said he cannot guarantee the protest will remain peaceful and given what happened when he claimed to be organising a ‘peaceful’ demonstration, the government is right to be alarmed. He recently intimated that he would try and keep the protest peaceful though he said will not “allow it [the government] to govern” if he is not “given justice” on November 30. What constitutes ‘justice’ is unclear, though with an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) last week issuing arrest warrants for Imran and several of his top aides, arguably their trials head the list. On Friday the Lahore High Court heard a petition against the rally and issued notices to Khan and members of the government but it noted that the government was not able to enforce its order in August to stop the protests in Islamabad either. The courts’ limitations being exposed once again, these events bear an uncanny resemblance to the tensions ahead of the August protest and the worry is they lead in much the same direction. *