Better late than never
The government moved swiftly in a pre-emptive move to
prevent the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) and Tehreek-i-Labbaik Ya Rasool
Allah (TLYR) occupying Faizabad interchange where Rawalpindi meets Islamabad
and which had been occupied by these outfits protesting against alleged changes
to the parliamentarians’ oath regarding finality of Hazrat Mohammad’s (PBUH)
prophethood during the previous government’s tenure. Not only was the sit-in
accompanied by violence in and around the area, it cost the PML-N government
its law minister. It may be recalled that the sit-in at Faizabad had finally to
be ‘dispersed’ through cash incentives distributed by a security agency chief
in full view of the cameras. If that episode left a bad taste in the mouth, the
abject surrender by the incumbent PTI government in the face of the even more
violent protests by the TLP and its sister organisations against the acquittal
of Aasia Bibi by the Supreme Court raised questions about the writ of the state
and the ruling party’s possessing the requisite political will to impose it,
rhetoric to this effect notwithstanding. The ‘agreement’ signed between the TLP
and the government conceded that Aasia Bibi’s name may be put on the Exit Control
List and the government would not stand in the way of a review petition being
filed against the apex court’s verdict. Subsequently, the review petition
appears to have been filed but not yet heard, while reports of Aasia Bibi
having left the country have been vociferously denied by the government. Now it
appears the TLP and others of its ilk had planned to hold another sit-in at
Faizabad on the first anniversary of the earlier sit-in referred to above that
lasted a full 21 days. It was anticipated that had the sit-in at Faizabad gone
ahead, the TLP would have announced at their favourite venue their future
course of action in the light of what they perceive is a violation of the
agreement with the government vis-à-vis the Aasia Bibi case.
Despite government efforts to dissuade them, the TLP
insisted on marching to Faizabad. Eventually this left the government little
choice. Khadim Hussain Rizvi, chief of TLP, and other leaders of all the
factions of the Labbaik movement and hundreds of their workers throughout the
country, have been arrested under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) for a
period of 30 days. Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry wrapped up the move in
the expected rhetoric of ensuring law and order, protecting people’s lives and
properties (unlike, let it be said, the last time Labbaik mobs went berserk),
etc. But he added a slightly droll touch to the proceedings by adding that
Khadim Hussain Rizvi had been placed in “protective custody”. A less fertile
imagination is compelled to ask, ‘protective custody’ for whom, against whom? Politicians’
compulsions aside, the fact is that Khadim Hussain Rizvi and the Labbaik
brigades terrorized citizens, damaged their vehicles and other property, and
held the country hostage in their protest against Aasia Bibi’s acquittal in a
false blasphemy case. The ‘compromise’ the government made ostensibly to defuse
the situation left the state looking pathetically weak and without any writ
against the purveyors of violence who called for mutiny in the military against
the present command and the murder of the Supreme Court judges who delivered
the Aasia Bibi verdict. Could such blood-curdling, treasonous calls be ignored?
Had they emanated from any other source without quite the nuisance value of the
newly emerged obsurantist militancy, the authors of such utterings would have
felt the heavy hand of the law and state before they even knew what hit them.
However, the government decided in its wisdom at the time that defusing the
situation (by whatever means) was the best course. Now that it has decided not
to allow Khadim Hussain Rizvi and company to repeat their holding the country
hostage through violence and the threat of violence, it could be argued with
hindsight that the earlier compromise was a tactical manoeuvre to take the steam
out of the situation, while the current pouncing on the troublemakers before
they can once again create mayhem and anarchy is what the government actually
wanted to do all along. The test of this proposition lies in what the
government does next, when the immediate danger of another crippling sit-in at
Faizabad has been avoided, residual protest and perhaps violence by TLP
supporters here and there throughout the country notwithstanding. Where do we
go from here?
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