‘I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.’ —Evelyn Beatrice Hall, 1906
Ideally speaking, every staunch supporter and champion of democracy, human rights and freedom of expression should follow this in true letter and spirit.
But after the fall of the PTI government in April 2022 and the kind of crackdown PTI, its leadership and supporters, including pro-PTI journalists and social media activists are facing, especially after the chaotic events of May 9; the champions of democracy, human rights and freedom of expression are in a quandary over whether they should raise their voice for those who had not respected their rights to dissent and freedom of expression while they were in power.
I have noticed that even well-known defenders of democracy and human rights in Pakistan have kept quite over clear human rights violations against the leadership and supporters of PTI. It appears to me that in most cases, they tend to look at every development from the lens of whether it will harm or benefit the PTI. Like the PDM government’s decision to prosecute civilians in military courts, which clearly violates international human rights laws regarding due process and fair trial was not opposed by civil society the way it should have been, just because it involved PTI workers. Even constitutional deviations like the refusal to hold elections within the ninety days timeframe for the provincial assemblies of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was tacitly supported over fears that it might bring the PTI back in power.
The PDM government is going to complete its term in August 2023, and constitutionally speaking, the general elections for the National Assembly must be held in October or latest in November 2023. But several federal cabinet ministers have kept indicating that they might go beyond their constitutional tenure in the name of the economy or other pressing concerns. Only a few non-partisan opinion makers in Pakistan have openly criticized the government for contemplating such an obvious violation of the Constitution. Thankfully there are reports that the co-chairperson PPP, Mr. Asif Ali Zardari has convinced the PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif to hold elections on time in a meeting in Dubai, but sadly there are no signs of any strong reaction from the civil society even if the PDM government finally decides to go beyond their stipulated constitutional timeframe.
During its three and half year tenure, PTI and its social media trolls had made the life of their political opponents, human rights defenders and critical journalists difficult. Trolls affiliated with the PTI government had started hashtags and trends against critical journalists and questioned their credentials, honesty and loyalty with Pakistan. On July 4, 2019, at 11am Pakistan Time, a Twitter trend #ArrestAntiPakJournalists was launched by Team #IK_Warriors demanding the arrest of critical journalists with a collage of their pictures, which included Hamid Mir, Talat Hussain, Saleem Safi, Shahzeb Khanzada, Nusrat Javed, Matiullah Jan, Raza Rumi, Imtiaz Alam, Gharida Faruqi and Asma Shirazi, to name a few.
It is also true that Imran Khan himself is responsible for the polarization and the extreme divide in Pakistani society. With the help of his populist narrative, he divided the country into ‘friends’ and ‘foes,’ and ‘us’ and ‘them’ where there was no middle ground possible. Either you love Imran Khan and PTI, or you hate them. Even if you want to remain bipartisan, PTI supporters will push you to the other side because according to Imran Khan, “everything is either good or bad. Allah has not allowed us to remain neutral. Only animals can remain neutral.” He has oversimplified reality for his supporters; that the PTI and its supporters are good and everyone else is bad. Hence, if you are bipartisan and neutral in this war of ‘good’ and ‘evil,’ you are an animal and worthy of condemnation.
But does it now mean that the champions of democracy and human rights should abandon their ideals and stop advocating and defending the Constitution, democracy and human rights because these principles may benefit the PTI? I think this is the question that supporters of democracy and human rights face throughout the democratic world, where populist leaders routinely invoke democracy and human rights to further their agenda and undermine the institutional foundations of democracy itself to consolidate their power. Hence, champions of democracy and human rights have a predicament on their hands now; either they sacrifice their democratic ideals because a populist leader may benefit, or they must stand with democracy and human rights without taking into consideration who benefits and who loses.
In my opinion, the ideals of democracy and human rights cannot and must not be sacrificed because of the fear that they might benefit the PTI. For example, the floodgates of prosecuting political activists under the Army Act in military courts should not be opened, because once you open this door for trying the PTI ‘arsonists,’ later the same may be used to deny due process of law to genuine political opposition. There are several provisions in the Criminal Procedure regarding ‘vandalism’ and ‘destroying public property,’ which can be used to prosecute PTI activists who were involved in the May 9 incidents.
Even more dangerous is the suggestion of delaying the general elections for a year or so on the pretext of the census or an ongoing economic emergency. If elections are delayed on any pretext, then that will be a real death blow to constitutionalism, democracy and human rights in Pakistan. Once such a precedent is set under the constitutional democratic dispensation, then in the future, no political government can be bound to call elections within the stipulated timeframe. Every incumbent government, if faced with slim chances of victory in the forthcoming elections, will try to find excuses to delay the polls. Sometimes, they may even manufacture an excuse to avoid elections altogether in an attempt to consolidate their hold on power.
Therefore, those who believe in democracy and human rights should not shy away from defending their ideals just because it might benefit the PTI, which as a populist party in power had routinely infringed on civil rights and democratic freedoms. Holding on to a principled stance on human rights is important for the future of democracy in Pakistan. The political history of Pakistan is testament to the fact that political rulers who make draconian laws to target their political opponents end up as the victim of the same laws later. The PML-N must not forget how the Ehtesab Act of 1997 which they had framed to punish the leadership of PPP under Benazir Bhutto was later used to try their own leadership in corruption cases by the military government of General Pervez Musharraf.
Therefore, as champions of democracy and human rights, one may disapprove of the policies and politics of PTI, but their fundamental human rights of due process and fair trial must be defended at all costs. There must be no compromise on the ideals of democracy, human rights and constitutionalism for the sake of political expediency and political likes and dislikes.
The champions of democracy, human rights and freedom of expression must know “of the meanest man in the republic is deprived of his rights, then every man in the republic is deprived of his rights.” —Jane Addams, 1903
Ideally speaking, every staunch supporter and champion of democracy, human rights and freedom of expression should follow this in true letter and spirit.
But after the fall of the PTI government in April 2022 and the kind of crackdown PTI, its leadership and supporters, including pro-PTI journalists and social media activists are facing, especially after the chaotic events of May 9; the champions of democracy, human rights and freedom of expression are in a quandary over whether they should raise their voice for those who had not respected their rights to dissent and freedom of expression while they were in power.
I have noticed that even well-known defenders of democracy and human rights in Pakistan have kept quite over clear human rights violations against the leadership and supporters of PTI. It appears to me that in most cases, they tend to look at every development from the lens of whether it will harm or benefit the PTI. Like the PDM government’s decision to prosecute civilians in military courts, which clearly violates international human rights laws regarding due process and fair trial was not opposed by civil society the way it should have been, just because it involved PTI workers. Even constitutional deviations like the refusal to hold elections within the ninety days timeframe for the provincial assemblies of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was tacitly supported over fears that it might bring the PTI back in power.
Imran Khan himself is responsible for the polarization and the extreme divide in Pakistani society. With the help of his populist narrative, he divided the country into ‘friends’ and ‘foes,’ and ‘us’ and ‘them’ where there was no middle ground possible.
The PDM government is going to complete its term in August 2023, and constitutionally speaking, the general elections for the National Assembly must be held in October or latest in November 2023. But several federal cabinet ministers have kept indicating that they might go beyond their constitutional tenure in the name of the economy or other pressing concerns. Only a few non-partisan opinion makers in Pakistan have openly criticized the government for contemplating such an obvious violation of the Constitution. Thankfully there are reports that the co-chairperson PPP, Mr. Asif Ali Zardari has convinced the PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif to hold elections on time in a meeting in Dubai, but sadly there are no signs of any strong reaction from the civil society even if the PDM government finally decides to go beyond their stipulated constitutional timeframe.
During its three and half year tenure, PTI and its social media trolls had made the life of their political opponents, human rights defenders and critical journalists difficult. Trolls affiliated with the PTI government had started hashtags and trends against critical journalists and questioned their credentials, honesty and loyalty with Pakistan. On July 4, 2019, at 11am Pakistan Time, a Twitter trend #ArrestAntiPakJournalists was launched by Team #IK_Warriors demanding the arrest of critical journalists with a collage of their pictures, which included Hamid Mir, Talat Hussain, Saleem Safi, Shahzeb Khanzada, Nusrat Javed, Matiullah Jan, Raza Rumi, Imtiaz Alam, Gharida Faruqi and Asma Shirazi, to name a few.
During its three and half year tenure, PTI and its social media trolls had made the life of their political opponents, human rights defenders and critical journalists difficult.
It is also true that Imran Khan himself is responsible for the polarization and the extreme divide in Pakistani society. With the help of his populist narrative, he divided the country into ‘friends’ and ‘foes,’ and ‘us’ and ‘them’ where there was no middle ground possible. Either you love Imran Khan and PTI, or you hate them. Even if you want to remain bipartisan, PTI supporters will push you to the other side because according to Imran Khan, “everything is either good or bad. Allah has not allowed us to remain neutral. Only animals can remain neutral.” He has oversimplified reality for his supporters; that the PTI and its supporters are good and everyone else is bad. Hence, if you are bipartisan and neutral in this war of ‘good’ and ‘evil,’ you are an animal and worthy of condemnation.
But does it now mean that the champions of democracy and human rights should abandon their ideals and stop advocating and defending the Constitution, democracy and human rights because these principles may benefit the PTI? I think this is the question that supporters of democracy and human rights face throughout the democratic world, where populist leaders routinely invoke democracy and human rights to further their agenda and undermine the institutional foundations of democracy itself to consolidate their power. Hence, champions of democracy and human rights have a predicament on their hands now; either they sacrifice their democratic ideals because a populist leader may benefit, or they must stand with democracy and human rights without taking into consideration who benefits and who loses.
The political history of Pakistan is testament to the fact that political rulers who make draconian laws to target their political opponents end up as the victim of the same laws later.
In my opinion, the ideals of democracy and human rights cannot and must not be sacrificed because of the fear that they might benefit the PTI. For example, the floodgates of prosecuting political activists under the Army Act in military courts should not be opened, because once you open this door for trying the PTI ‘arsonists,’ later the same may be used to deny due process of law to genuine political opposition. There are several provisions in the Criminal Procedure regarding ‘vandalism’ and ‘destroying public property,’ which can be used to prosecute PTI activists who were involved in the May 9 incidents.
Even more dangerous is the suggestion of delaying the general elections for a year or so on the pretext of the census or an ongoing economic emergency. If elections are delayed on any pretext, then that will be a real death blow to constitutionalism, democracy and human rights in Pakistan. Once such a precedent is set under the constitutional democratic dispensation, then in the future, no political government can be bound to call elections within the stipulated timeframe. Every incumbent government, if faced with slim chances of victory in the forthcoming elections, will try to find excuses to delay the polls. Sometimes, they may even manufacture an excuse to avoid elections altogether in an attempt to consolidate their hold on power.
Therefore, those who believe in democracy and human rights should not shy away from defending their ideals just because it might benefit the PTI, which as a populist party in power had routinely infringed on civil rights and democratic freedoms. Holding on to a principled stance on human rights is important for the future of democracy in Pakistan. The political history of Pakistan is testament to the fact that political rulers who make draconian laws to target their political opponents end up as the victim of the same laws later. The PML-N must not forget how the Ehtesab Act of 1997 which they had framed to punish the leadership of PPP under Benazir Bhutto was later used to try their own leadership in corruption cases by the military government of General Pervez Musharraf.
Therefore, as champions of democracy and human rights, one may disapprove of the policies and politics of PTI, but their fundamental human rights of due process and fair trial must be defended at all costs. There must be no compromise on the ideals of democracy, human rights and constitutionalism for the sake of political expediency and political likes and dislikes.
The champions of democracy, human rights and freedom of expression must know “of the meanest man in the republic is deprived of his rights, then every man in the republic is deprived of his rights.” —Jane Addams, 1903