Daily Times

In a country like Pakistan which is overwhelmingly Muslim the question of the finality of the Prophet (PBUH) can have just one answer, no matter who is answering the question. Having said that let us see how we spent almost the entire month of November this year trying in vain to find the non-existent repudiator.

If one went by what Allama Khadim Hussain Rizvi had claimed immediately following the end of the Faizabad interchange sit-in and also by what the textual evidence logged in the so-called ‘document of surrender’ one is constrained to conclude that the accord was not an accord in the true sense of its meaning but a wish list of the leadership of the Tehreek-e-Labaik Ya Rasool Allah (TLYRA) endorsed whole-heartedly by the ‘mediator’ and the government at a separate event (with no one from TLYRA leadership participating) having been allowed no other option by the on ground situation signed on the dotted lines of the wish-list.

Following this argument to its logical end one is doubly constrained to conclude that the government is not at all legally or morally bound to honour the TLYRA wish — list being touted as a ‘ mediator’ endorsed accord. And by the same token, Zahid Hamid’s resignation seems to have also been rendered invalid.

The government was left with no alternative but to invoke Article 245 of the Constitution when on Saturday last a contingent of around 8,000 or so fully equipped police force including also Punjab police and Frontier Constabulary was unable to dislodge a seemingly ill-equipped motley crowd of about 2,500 or so people. Despite the fact that the police did not use live bullets but only tear-gas shells, water cannons and rubber bullets six persons are said have died in the melee.

The counter attack mounted by the protestors, who it is believed were now equipped with firearms as well as teargas shells and masks plus other unauthorised weapons forced the police to beat a hasty retreat. The Police, in view of the armed advances of the counter-attackers, is said to have withdrawn from the scene in order to avoid any further loss of life on either side.

Article 245 of the Constitution clearly obliges the military, once it is invoked by a sitting government, to come to the aid of the executive in its legal endeavours to restore law and order in the entire country or any place or region specified by the Prime Minister

The Saturday operation had come after the government had failed to negotiate a peaceful settlement with the protestors whose 20-day long sit-in had disrupted normal life in the capital.  Meanwhile, both the Supreme Court and the Islamabad High Court had also ordered the government to clear the Faizabad interchange which was causing immense hardships to people living in the twin-cities.

The Article 245 of the Constitution clearly obliges the armed forces, once it is invoked by a sitting government, to come to the aid of the executive in its legal endeavours to restore law and order in the entire country or any place or region specified by the Prime Minister. There is nothing in this Article that allows anybody the right to makeover an illegal assembly of a group of people challenging the writ of the government into a dispute of two parties of equal standing.

The courts had instructed the government to ensure that lives were not lost in any operation that would be launched against the protestors. Therefore, one is puzzled why anybody else had needed to advise the Prime Minister to ‘handle the Islamabad dharna peacefully’.

One would not be entirely off the mark if one were to blame all those political parties represented in Parliament for the ‘accord’ regarded as ‘a complete capitulation of the government’. The amendment which had prompted such a fury from the TLYRA had been passed unanimously by the entire Parliament and it was amended back to its original position as well unanimously. But none of these parties who had voted for both the amendments stood by the government during the sit-in crisis. Perhaps none had wanted to suffer the same stigma as the federal law minister did for having voted for the amendment in question. Also perhaps with their eyes on the fast approaching general elections they perhaps felt naturally disinclined to come to the rescue of their rival who was still looking politically too formidable for them to beat in any political contest.

During almost a similar but not an identical situation when the Army was given a ‘vague’ role to mediate during the 2014 PTI-PAT dharna in the red zone, the then COAS could not do what his successor managed to do last Monday because during 2014 dharna the entire parliament minus the PTI had stood by the PMLN.

After the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the leader who had the strength of character to take a public position on such issues and go to the people directly with a message of moderation, the country’s political scene seems to have gone totally barren in ideological terms. That is perhaps why when an opportunity was offered the establishment could successfully use a far-right religious group to marginalise the mainstream political parties.

After the virtual demise of the PPP following Benazir’s murder, one had hoped Imran Khan’s PTI with its moderate politics would push back the marginalised pockets of far-right religious groups. But not only Imran did not do what was expected of a leader who never tires of swearing by the Quaid and the Allama but he has, to the complete shock of his admirers, embraced Maulana Samiul Haq of the JUI(S) as well. Imran’s close association with such elements has rendered the PTI too easy a prey for the establishment.

Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif did try to keep these marginalised far-right religious groups in their respective grooves with some of his enlightened but half- hearted policies. But since he draws almost all his support from Punjab’s religious right population comprising feudal aristocracy, big business and shop keepers, his hopes of keeping his party intact at least until the Senate elections and thereby keeping the Abbasi government from falling before time now appear to be in jeopardy. And if the anti-Nawaz political campaign that is being built up by the far-right religious group continues to feed on its mantra that the PMLN has lost the right to the support of Punjab voters because of the passage of the ‘questionable’ amendment (which no longer exists) it is the end of story for the Sharifs and the PMLN.

The writer is a senior journalist based in Islamabad. He served as the Executive Editor of Express Tribune until 2014

Published in Daily Times, December 3^rd 2017.