The air reeks of hypocrisy when a country crying to anyone who would listen about it battling the cold winds from War in Ukraine on a shoestring budget can dish out a whopping Rs 149 million to defend the front gate. Although former prime minister Imran Khan is safely perched inside his chateau and the crowds have returned (eyes fixated on the six-day ultimatum), our fragile economy would take considerably longer to dig deep within its pockets and pay for security measures.
From containers to fork lifters to blowing the dust off an arsenal of shells, it was nothing short of a bloodied conflict, and for the millionth time, Pakistan stood on both sides of the barrel. Call it our greatest misfortune, but our boiling blood and heated words have a knack for knocking reason out of the window.
If kaptaan and his party had set out on a crippling agenda to hammer the last nail in the coffin of this coalition government, those holding the wheel did not even try to fare any better. Interior Minister acting on an exaggerated agenda(lending a line or two from the Sicilian mafia); forceful measures–being decried as gangsterism far and wide–to contain the PTI supporters; a windshield smashes here and ordinary lives disrupted there: the wrath of the state had descended in its full glory. Never mind, their flimsy excuses of past records did not defend the brutal violation constitutionally guaranteed right to protest.
By throwing the Supreme Court’s caution to the wind, the other side, however, reiterated that Mr Khan alone holds the power to do whatsoever, whensoever and to whosoever. That the PTI had performed underwhelmingly is interestingly quite an understatement, but the frustration of its own failure to generate a crowd to the tunes of millions cannot, and should not, be taken out on others. What the heavyweights wished to achieve by setting green belts ablaze and tearing apart public infrastructure is still up in the air, but viral videos of protestors locking horns with police officers and assaulting journalists are testament to the rife menace of classism. Of course, political fights are best dealt with on ballots. No qualms about that.
Yet, since the street culture refuses to take the back seat, isn’t it high time all parties finally decide on some ground rules? Because while we continue to be amused by the horrors of this neverending fight club, real livelihoods and real people, in the real world are in real-life danger. *
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