All of this stems from the arrest of former Prime Minister Imran Khan in the Al-Qader alleged corruption case. The country saw violence, vandalism, and arson, especially in Punjab and KPK. Armed protesters went on a rampage causing damage bills into billions in the country already teetering on the verge of economic collapse.
According to police violent protesters entering into hot spots of unrest, seemed well-trained Lahore Core Commander's house, Radio Pakistan Building, Edhi Ambulances, and Tool plazas were attacked and burned respectively in the name of public anger following Imran Khan's arrest.
PTI leaders distanced the party from fuelling violence in the country. However, reportedly, video and audio leaks offered credible evidence of party leaders inciting the mob to specific targets. Under no circumstances, violent protest can be justified in the wake of Imran Khan’s detention.
Political leaders and ex-premiers have faced incarceration and politically-motivated cases in the past that too with political grace and resilience including Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif, Yousuf Raza Gilani, Benazir Bhutto.
During PTI’s tenure, when IK's attention was drawn to trumped-up cases made by the NAB against the then opposition politicians and senior bureaucrats, the ousted premier is on record having said that let them face cases and prove their innocence in the courts of law.
Has he forgotten this preaching? How can people be incited to violent methods while the party supremo is facing charges of financial corruption? Imran Khan had wished for the liquidation of his political opponents through trumped-up charges and hushed-up trials. It is he who had transformed political opponents into personal enmity and was eager to send them to the gallows by hook or crook.
Following the deteriorating law and order situation, the military was called in to aid the civil administration to restore law and order in Islamabad, Lahore, and KPK.
Watching violent protesters cloaked in political anger on a rampage and with law enforcement agencies showing restraint in terms of not giving mutual retaliation has developed a debate various levels.
If violent protesters attacked core commanders' houses in Karachi or Quetta, had LEAs shown the same level of patience while faced with mobs? Had there been such an episode of mob attack by armed protesters, they would have been handled differently. It is very difficult to disagree with this version as not only political leaders but also protesters from small provinces receive disproportionate responses and face backlash from the established political and institutional order.
This disillusionment breeds ideological frustrations which is very harmful to a political framework. It calls for introspection in the larger interest of parliamentary political framework.
The violent protesters protesting against IK's arrest has earned the tag of "privileged protesters." So, now we have political laadla and privileged protesters. This division is very detrimental to democracy. Fairness calls for equal treatment of citizens living in all wings of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in every context during holding public demonstrations for their political rights or demonstrating political support for respective party leadership.
An important question that arises is: who emboldened PTI supporters who have morphed into mobs from the beginning?
On the heels of IK's ouster from office with no confidence move, PTI right-wingers started times and again gathering around political opponents chanting derogatory slogans like the "thief, gang of thieves" so much so that even the pure land of Medina was not spared of; remember people who had surrounded PM Shehbaz during the pilgrimage that had tarnished the image of the country. The cheap political gain was put before political decency. PTI had called it spontaneous public anger against the PM.
When politicians and institutions divide the nation on ethnic, religious, and petty political lines, it is the country that suffers most in terms of economic terms and damage bills caused by enraged mobs cloaked in petty political arrangements. When you cultivate divisions, you can't harvest harmony that is so a simple equation and is so easy to understand.
Pakistani democracy can only thrive and survive if those who matter allow the political process to naturally evolve and produce visionary political leadership subsequently creating national cohesion and cultivating democratic norms.
Some political commentators and friends in our social circles do paint the PTI supremo as a revolutionary leader. What they forgot to remember is that IK, after his ascendancy into power corridors, swiftly descended into the authoritarian style of ruler and doled out discriminatory treatment to governments formed by other political parties in small provinces.
Let us not forget the amendment, titled Prevention of Electronic Crimes(Amendment) Ordinance 2022(PECA) that gave sweeping powers to FIA so that independent voices and dissent could be strangulated and crushed respectively. Thankfully, the draconian amendment called PECA had been declared unconstitutional by the Islamabad High Court.
The acid test of any revolutionary is when he is at the helm of affairs and is willing to respect the mandate of other political parties as well as to show respect for those daring differences of opinion in terms of policies being formulated and implemented.
IK showed his true colours after his entry into highest echelons of power. If he comes into power again, he will shed his, say revolutionary ideas, sooner than expected. Old habits die hard.
There should be no room for mob politics and selective justice in our institutions.
Are the red lines drawn by institutions entrusted with restoring law and order, and principles of accountability, and administering justice when it comes to dealing with multitudes of populations living in different wings of the state not the same?
Let the principle of accountability be applied to all and sundry (those in political circles) irrespective of their domicile considerations.
A fragile economy, partial accountability, and overstepping institutions threaten the whole edifice of democracy. Creating Frankenstein monsters for politically motivated outcomes was, is, and will be dangerous for the political spectrum. Leaving political following aside, enlightened individuals see all mainstream political parties as two sides of the same coin.
Pakistan needs a new crop of politicians basked in democratic credentials that can drop undemocratic, and colonial legacy of divide and rule. It is not the Parliament, but bureaucracy and judiciary calling all shots.
Pakistani democracy needs a paradigm shift. To achieve this end, ensuring separation of powers, and letting evolution of the political process should be the beginning of the end.