Daily Times

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) has resolved to stage more protests countrywide and especially on The Mall, Lahore, after their forced dispersal from there on Friday by the police. PTI had put up a protest camp on The Mall to raise voice against alleged rigging in PP-150 in the recent by-polls. Refusing to accept its narrow defeat in the constituency, PTI’s Punjab President Chaudhry Ijaz has asked his party’s stalwarts to brace for countrywide protests. As far as The Mall is concerned, the Punjab government has relied on the Lahore High Court’s ban in 2011 on all protests and rallies on the main thoroughfare. The police said Section 144 had been imposed, which allows the police to break up any gathering exceeding four people and imprison the violators for six months under Section 188. Earlier and the latest bans have never been consistently implemented. Some protests have been allowed in the past, especially those staged by religious outfits such as the Difa-e-Pakistan Council. Perhaps the reason the PTI was not allowed to carry on with the protest is that after the rout of the PPP in the general elections in Punjab, the PTI is the only real challenger to the PML-N in the province. The demonstrated ability of the PTI to mobilise street power, especially the youth, may have been at the back of the Punjab government’s mind.

As far as Section 144 is concerned, it is part of the British colonial legacy that we have so far retained for expedient reasons. Though our legal system is crumbling under the weight of many archaic laws, there are some that deserve obliteration because of their express purpose to suppress dissent, something that may have suited the British to perpetuate their rule in the face of the independence movement, but bring little credit to a free country. History is rife with examples of Section 144 being used brutally. The track record of this law after partition is equally inked in blood. It is about time that we dispense with such anti-democratic laws from the past. The PTI had shown restraint while their members were being arrested and did not tussle with the police, a rare sight in our political culture, rife with aggression and violence. However, the PTI, considering itself the harbinger of a law-abiding society, should have taken care not to indulge in the violation of (an admittedly bad) law. It has become almost second nature since the general elections for the PTI to reject results that do not go in its favour, such is its self-belief in its inevitable triumph in every contest it enters. It is time the PTI came of age and learnt to accept defeat gracefully. As to complaints, Information Minister Pervez Rashid is not far off the mark when he advises the PTI to have recourse to the mechanisms provided in the system for redress, notwithstanding the party’s scepticism regarding the proper forum, i.e. the election tribunals.*