The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) convoy, led by Bushra Bibi, the wife of Imran Khan, is approaching Islamabad's Zero Point, which has been taken under the control of Pakistan Army soldiers. The Ministry of Interior earlier during the day had announced the deployment of the Pakistan Army under Article 245 of the Constitution in response to escalating security concerns in Islamabad—PTI protestors reach Islamabad’s D-Chowk amid tense clashes, The Express Tribune, November 26, 2024.
“Amnesty calls for a prompt, thorough, impartial, effective and transparent investigation into the deaths and injuries of protesters, as well as the unlawful use of force including lethal and less-lethal weapons by security personnel….Since yesterday, multiple clashes between protesters and law-enforcement agencies have taken place after military forces were called into the capital invoking provisions relating to “external aggression or threat of war” in the Pakistan constitution. Reports suggest the unlawful use of tear gas and shoot-on-sight orders against the protesters. The exact number of deaths and injuries is unknown due to the Government’s clampdown on information. However, this morning the BBC reported the deaths of at least six people, including four security officers—Pakistan: ‘brutal and lethal’ crackdown on Imran Khan supporters condemned, Amnesty International, UK.
The unprecedented and perpetual state repression, cases of missing persons, raids, arrests, and direct firing on political workers, the specter of terrorism, militarism and extremism, politics of revenge, resort to violence, open mockery of the rule of law, cronyism, nepotism, abuse of public money, and state patronisation of corrupt practices by successive rulers defy all norms of constitutional democracy in Pakistan. These highly undesirable and detestable practices, unfortunately, not confined to any particular political party, whether in power or opposition, create doubt about the very essence of what we call “democracy” in “The Islamic” Republic of Pakistan”. In theory, Pakistan is a constitutional democracy with a written constitution, but in practice, it is an embodiment of authoritarianism, state brutality, and kleptocracy.
Our painful history of dictatorial military regimes and autocratic civilian rules, coupled with corruption and bad governance, has crippled the state during the last seven decades: favouratism, mediocrity, and authoritarianism rule supreme in our political culture and governance. Hence, if Imran Khan during his term as premier [2018-2022] acted like a kleptocrat, the attitude of Shehbaz Sharif and other heads of parties, when in power, has been no different.
The mayhem that took place at Islamabad’s D-Chowk on November 26, 2024, was reported by Reuters as: “Pakistan’s security forces launched a sweeping midnight raid on supporters of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan who had stormed the capital demanding his release on Tuesday, local media said, with hundreds arrested amidst chaotic scenes”.
According to various media reports, the government called military under Article 245 of the Constitution and notification to this effect also granted “the army, powers to impose curfew in any area to maintain law and order. Security forces have been given clear instructions to shoot anyone spreading chaos on the spot”.
The shoot-on-sight orders were perturbing for all having respect for human rights that include the right for “peaceful demonstrations”. However, the government justified the same claiming: “Orders have been issued to deal with anarchists and miscreants with an iron hand, with clear directives to shoot such elements on sight”.
As per the official version, these “miscreants rammed a vehicle into Rangers personnel on the Srinagar Highway in Islamabad, resulting in the martyrdom of four Rangers officials. Five others, including Rangers and police officials, sustained serious injuries”.
Article 245(1) of the Constitution reads: “The Armed Forces shall, under the directions of the Federal Government, defend Pakistan against external aggression or threat of war, and, subject to law, act in aid of civil power when called upon to do so”.
The remaining parts of this Article are also worth consideration:
(2) The validity of any direction issued by the Federal Government under clause (1) shall not be called into question in any court.
(3) A High Court shall not exercise any jurisdiction under Article 199 in relation to any area in which the Armed Forces of Pakistan are, for the time being, acting in aid of civil power in pursuance of Article 245:
Provided that this clause shall not be deemed to affect the jurisdiction of the High Court in respect of any proceeding pending immediately before the day on which the Armed Forces start acting in aid of civil power.
(4) Any proceeding in relation to an area referred to in clause (3) instituted on or after the day the Armed Forces start acting in aid of civil power and pending in any High Court shall remain suspended for the period during which the Armed Forces are so acting.
In a late-night interview on November 26, 2024, Senator Syed Mohsin Naqvi, the Federal Interior Minister and Chairman of Pakistan Cricket Board, who was caretaker Chief Minister of Punjab before general elections held on February 8, 2024, said: “If we have to impose a curfew, resort to Section 245 (seeking the army’s assistance) or a third option, we will take it. This is why we’re saying in advance that we will take extreme steps if we have to”. He added: “...are trying to ensure that there is no loss of life…. the protesters have tried every opportunity to create bloodshed. When they open fire, the response will also be in the form of fire…Do not cross the red line, or we will have to take extreme steps”.
The use of ill-directed force against citizens and some dissenting voices without eliminating the main causes leading to their defiance would be merely a self-defeating exercise.
A report by the news agency AFP said: that Pakistan’s jailed ex-prime minister Imran Khan called late Tuesday for more supporters to join protests over his incarceration in the capital, after a day of deadly confrontations between marchers and security forces. It added:
“Convoys of pro-Khan demonstrators have been marching on Islamabad since Sunday, hauling aside roadblocks and skirmishing with police and paramilitary forces firing volleys of rubber bullets and tear gas.
Khan has been jailed since August 2023, sidelined by dozens of legal cases he claims were confected to prevent his comeback in elections this year marred by rigging allegations.
Since the February vote his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has defied a government crackdown with regular rallies, but Tuesday’s is by far the largest to grip the capital”.
According to Reuters, “Local broadcasters Geo News and ARY both reported that a massive raid was launched by security forces amidst a pitch-dark central Islamabad, where lights had been turned off and a barrage of teargas was fired. The protest gathering was almost completely dispersed, they reported”.
Much has been written in print media and debated in electronic media about the “final call” by incarcerated Imran Khan, the insistence of Bushra Bibi to go to D-Chowk despite purported agreement with the founder of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to have an assembly at the sit-in at Sangjani. Violence from both sides taking away many precious lives and causing injuries to hundreds or thousands is rightly deplored. The severe criticism of the abduction/arrest and false case against journalist Matiullah Jan has further tarnished the image of the state.
What we are witnessing at home and elsewhere is a reaction towards growing “fascism” on the part of certain states and institutions
The handling of the protests by the federal and provincial governments of Punjab, Sindh, and Balochistan by roadblocks and other tactics has elicited valid protestations. The march with armed guards towards Islamabad by the sitting Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa rightly involved concerns in various quarters.
However, the most lamentable aspect of the entire bazaar episode was labeling ordinary citizens and political workers as anarchists, miscreants, and even terrorists and subjecting them to worst repression including alleged open firing, denied officially.
Such a brutal use of force is possible only under a fascist mindset. Fascism, like terrorism, is a self-destructive ideology—both are detrimental to peace and tranquility. To fight both, it is necessary to understand them. Wishful thinking about the invincibility of force will not help. Even the United States and its allies failed to win the ‘war against terror’(sic), something that related to human behaviour and lust for money and quest for control. The use of ill-directed force against citizens and some dissenting voices without eliminating the main causes leading to their defiance would be merely a self-defeating exercise.
There are vested interests that want to push us towards the dark ages when inalienable fundamental rights are being denied by authoritarian rulers. There are debates everywhere in the world pinpointing to the erosion of civil liberties on a massive scale in the name of defending the so-called ideological frontiers by violence that breeds further violence.
What we are witnessing at home and elsewhere is a reaction towards growing “fascism” on the part of certain states and institutions. Defiance is a human problem, which needs to be understood in its sociological perspective. The analysis of the character structure of a man is at the core of understanding the rising phenomena of extremism, fascism, fanaticism, fundamentalism, and terrorism, which includes state terrorism as in Kashmir, Gaza, and elsewhere.
The economic imbalances within a society as well as globally, revival of religious movements (primarily a camouflage to manifest certain political aims), and imposition of the will of the mighty on the weak, all culminated in the shape of 9/11 in 2001 and events thereafter, which have created world-wide turmoil and unleashed a reign of fear. This has been well-documented by Gretchen Peters in her brilliantly-researched book, Seeds of Terror. It is also exposed by this scribe in Pakistan: Drug-trap to Debt-trap, sequel to Pakistan: From Hash to Heroin.
The oppressed and powerless have their peculiar ways of reacting, which by no means can be expected to be according to the norms of generally accepted principles or legal norms. Their destructive tendencies are symptomatic of a sick order that is imposed on them, denying them their legitimate rights.
Freedom of expression per se has been considered as sufficient fulfillment of the need to achieve a democratic society. The fallout of this fulfillment appears to be a misconceived notion on the part of individuals and groups that freedom of speech ipso facto gives them an authority or a license to impose their own ideas on others using money, media, power, and physical force as means.
They are not only intolerant towards others’ views but also suffer from the misconception that their ideas are the only truth through which the world can be changed into a wonderful place. Those who profess self-assumed ideological obligations as the only way of life live under the illusion that they hold the ultimate truth. Our current political problem is that neither side is ready to open a dialogue—both sides have a non-comprising attitude sans rationality, reconciliation, and concern for common people. Those having gun power also make it a point that discords continue and democracy never goes to the grassroots.
Obviously, if we want to change this situation drastically, a balance has to be struck between the powerful and the powerless. If a large segment of our society or even that of the world lives in a state of powerlessness, the powerful will always remain the target of hatred and attack. The powerful want to control human beings as machines, where all cogs function as per the command of the master. Human beings are not machine cogs—they find ways to develop all sorts of malfunctioning, depriving the master of his absolute control. But masters never understand!
Highhandedness on the part of the powerful and tactics adopted so far, mainly based on the use of brutal force, cannot succeed forever. The oppressed and powerless have their peculiar ways of reacting, which by no means can be expected to be according to the norms of generally accepted principles or legal norms. Their destructive tendencies are symptomatic of a sick order that is imposed on them, denying them their legitimate rights.
Our beloved country is fast emerging as an authoritarian state reminiscent of fascist systems of the last century’s practices in Germany and Italy where the dominant role of authority in social and political structure rested with dictators. Anatomy of Human Destructiveness, a remarkable book by the great psychologist and thinker Erich Fromm, should be read by all those who want to understand the basis of ongoing conflicts giving rise to violence and extremism.
Erich Fromm in Escape from Freedom rightly concluded, “The victory over all kinds of authoritarian systems will be possible only if democracy does not retreat but takes the offensive and proceeds to realise what has been its aim in the minds of those who fought for freedom the last centuries. It will triumph over the forces of nihilism only if it can imbue people with a faith that is the strongest the human mind is capable of, the faith in life and truth, and freedom as the active and spontaneous realisation of the individual self”. We need to stress tolerance and non-violence in Pakistan, but these can only be practiced if there is true democratic polity and culture with responsible governance, judicial propriety, and socio-economic justice for all, end to bigotry, authoritarianism, exploitation, and injustice.