The Revolutionary Standoff: Assessing the Damage – Editorial

The much hyped and live tele­cast­ed polit­i­cal dra­ma in the cap­i­tal is final­ly mov­ing towards its drop scene. Both lead­ers of the twin protests have announced the final stage in their own ways; Imran Khan will march towards the Red Zone, while Tahir ul Qadri will hold a people’s par­lia­ment – it’s hard to decide which of them is more ludi­crous. Both are most like­ly to fail in achiev­ing their respec­tive goals, but in either case they have already caused enough hav­oc which stands inde­pen­dent of the out­come of their next moves.

The twin lead­ers’ haugh­ti­ness has not only brought the dai­ly lives of cit­i­zens to a halt; they are also caus­ing severe blows to the econ­o­my. Imran Khan being part of the elec­toral process has more stakes in the sys­tem than Qadri hence his actions call for extra scruti­ny. Until recent­ly he has been one of the few politi­cians to con­sis­tent­ly advo­cate dia­logue with the Tal­iban; but he is not ready to extend the same favor to a demo­c­ra­t­i­cal­ly gov­ern­ment. His relent­less pur­suit to unseat the gov­ern­ment has not been sup­port­ed by any oth­er polit­i­cal par­ty with­in the par­lia­ment. Even with­in his own par­ty, a num­ber of peo­ple are not hap­py with his extreme calls. At the same time his pop­u­lar­i­ty among the vot­ers and sup­port­ers is on steep decline. Even if he suc­ceeds in his des­per­ate demands, the dan­ger­ous trend of tak­ing out to roads to top­ple a sit­ting gov­ern­ment will be a hang­ing sword for any upcom­ing gov­ern­ment, includ­ing Khan’s. In case of his more like­ly fail­ure, the cur­rent mis­ad­ven­ture will result in fur­ther weak­en­ing of the future oppo­si­tion. Most impor­tant­ly, PTI’s pos­si­ble pos­i­tive role in flag­ging the PML (N)’s elec­toral monop­oly in Pun­jab will also be doubt­ful.

The way Imran Khan has moved from one demand to the oth­er even­tu­al­ly exhaust­ing all the polit­i­cal options, it appears that the real tar­get of the protests is not just the gov­ern­ment; it is the state of Pak­istan. From threat­en­ing police to refusal to accept the deci­sions of courts, Khan has reduced rule of law into a mock­ery. By giv­ing the most unsuit­able call for civ­il dis­obe­di­ence, if tak­en seri­ous­ly, he has fur­ther debil­i­tat­ed the state to gov­ern. His stub­born­ness to come into pow­er through a mob is a severe blow to the fledg­ling demo­c­ra­t­ic cul­ture. Khan is severe­ly under­min­ing the role of respec­tive insti­tu­tions and hell bent on achiev­ing every­thing through per­son­al inter­ven­tion. Is this the new Pak­istan he has been talk­ing about?

Last but not least, if any blood­shed hap­pens because of Khan’s reck­less call of march­ing in the Red Zone, he must be held respon­si­ble. Also if any unde­mo­c­ra­t­ic force seizes state pow­er in this sit­u­a­tion, Khan’s dem­a­goguery will not exon­er­ate him.