Since a number of days have passed since what is now being called the Karachi incident – the matter of Captain (r) Safdar’s arrest and the events leading to it – and the country is still pretty much in the dark about what really happened, it is up to the Sindh government and the military to get to the bottom of things quickly and make all findings public. Something must also be said about the deafening silence on the part of the federal government. Surely at a time when the most important state institutions were falling all over each other and themselves in trying to explain the strange circumstances that led to the said arrest, the centre did itself no favours by distancing itself from the whole affair. And rather than break up or disintegrate or even get into some sort of infighting, the opposition had a field day because of this development by selling it as yet another example of the government trying to sabotage the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM).
Such investigations should not take too long to carry out. There are as many versions of the story as there are parties talking about it, which is natural considering Pakistan’s political atmosphere, but something must have happened to cause such a strange and sudden arrest in the middle of the night; especially since Sindh’s top police force applied for leave because they said they felt “demoralised and shocked.” It’s all very fine that the army chief talked to the Peoples Party chairman to make things better, and the chairman talked to the IG, but that leaves the rest of the country out of the information loop. And since both government and opposition are doing whatever they are doing so they can protect the interests of the people, or at least that is what they say, they must share all relevant information about what really happened with the public immediately.
Pakistan is at such a critical point in its history that controversy about institutions is the last thing it needs. All relevant organs of the state must therefore mobilise at once and find out exactly what was it that made for such a departure from norm on that night, and who exactly was responsible, so that proper punishment can be awarded and such events are not repeated in the future. If the state fails to protect the integrity of its institutions, however, it will have only itself to blame if the world starts calling it a banana republic.
Government decides to go tough on opposition
News headlines implying that the government had decided to go tough on the opposition following the success of the latter’s protest demonstrations in Gujranwala and Karachi are noted with a fair bit of concern because they confirm a political slugfest right ahead in which the common people are sure to emerge as the biggest losers. The flurry of arrests and FIRs that have taken place, not to mention the prime minister’s promise that all corruption cases will be seen through to their logical conclusions, only adds to the already tense atmosphere. It seems the government has ignored the rather obvious fact that such tactics will only add to the opposition’s claims of harassment and intimidation.
A better approach would have been to try to diffuse the situation by offering to sit and talk with the opposition on matters that are important for the public. The ruling party should also not forget that it has already let the people down by failing to arrest the rising trends of inflation and unemployment. Even PTI’s own lawmakers were forced to heap criticism on their own government at a recent parliamentary party meeting because of the same issues. Those that speak for the government would also have noted how the opposition has been able to incorporate this weakness of theirs into its larger anti-government narrative. And since there is nothing to suggest that prices, especially of the most essential items of daily use including staple food, are going to come down anytime soon, the government isn’t exactly acting in its own best interests.
That is not to say that the government should take all the criticism sitting down, of course, just that if ever there was a moment where it needed its actions to speak louder than words, this is it. And the kind of actions that the government is resorting to, like threatening opposition leaders and workers with arrests, etc, run the risk of proving counter-productive. What is needed right now, especially on the part of the government, is to find a way to diffuse these big rallies that are clearly gaining momentum with time. That is important not just to de-escalate in a politically charged situation, but also to take precautions against a possible second wave of the coronavirus. We are already dangerously close to losing all that we gained by successfully containing the spread of the virus earlier. Everybody claiming to speak for the people and the country should prove their loyalty to both by first uniting against the virus.
