PTI’s foibles
IT already seems safe to say that Imran Khan has grossly overplayed his hand by moving forward with the PTI’s ‘Jail Bharo Tehreek’. Apart from some of the party’s most dedicated workers, it appears that the majority of its support base is content with remaining on the sidelines.
Reports from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Thursday suggested that the party was in complete disarray on the day of the Peshawar ‘court arrest drive’. The venue was changed at the eleventh hour, key leaders failed to show up, and there was also a comical stand-off between the citizenry and the state, with neither the police appearing too keen on arresting the PTI supporters, nor Mr Khan’s ‘tigers’ themselves very enthusiastic about spending time behind bars.
It appears that the disorder in the PTI’s ranks was due to confusion at the top, with senior leader Pervez Khattak telling PTI’s provincial leadership that Mr Khan would give another call for arrests.
Even in Punjab, the PTI seems to have gotten cold feet. It filed a habeas corpus petition to retrieve nine of its senior leaders who had been arrested just a day earlier, arguing that their lives were in danger if they were to remain in police custody.
This is certainly not how mass arrest drives work. The idea is to overwhelm the system, not beat a hasty retreat the moment the state flexes its muscles.
One cannot say this adventure has played out unexpectedly. Mr Khan appears to have a fairly poor understanding of his support base and its relationship with his party.
He repeatedly fails to account for the fact that there is a complete lack of organisation in the PTI at the grassroots level. He cannot expect ordinary people to place blind faith in him and proceed to jail, especially when there is no support network to watch out for them and protect them during the period of their incarceration.
It is folly for Mr Khan to believe that he can mobilise ordinary supporters the same way that the Jamaat-i-Islami can, or earlier iterations of the MQM could. The PTI and Mr Khan have risen to the top of Pakistani politics not on the back of an organised populist movement, but due to ordinary voters’ disillusionment with the politics of some of our more ‘experienced’ leaders and their parties.
Therefore, while Mr Khan’s personal charisma may pull a significant number of votes at the ballot box, it is never going to prove enough to persuade ordinary citizens to dedicate their time and resources to a movement like the ‘Jail Bharo Tehreek’.
Till the party undertakes any meaningful restructuring, its lack of mobilisation power will remain its Achilles heel when it comes to launching movements that pit ordinary people against the might of the state.
Published in Dawn, February 25th, 2023
Toshakhana details
THE government’s decision to declassify and make public the record of the Toshakhana gifts and their buyers is a welcome change of heart on its part. Only a few weeks ago, the government had told the Lahore High Court that such disclosure could potentially damage the national interest in the conduct of foreign relations, and embarrass the dignitaries who had given those gifts. On Thursday, a federal law officer assured the court hearing a petition, which sought the record of all Toshakhana gifts received or retained by politicians and bureaucrats since independence, that the government was declassifying the details of gifts received since 2002 and would soon put them online for public access. Nonetheless, he said, the names of the foreign dignitaries who gave those gifts would not be revealed. The court was also informed that the government had decided to introduce legislation to make the transactions and the record of Toshakhana gifts transparent. Separately, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had told a press conference earlier this week that he had decided that politicians and bureaucrats would not be allowed to retain gifts worth more than $300 (Rs80,000 at the current exchange rate).
With the government building a public case of corruption and misuse of power against former prime minister Imran Khan and his spouse for allegedly taking expensive gifts from the repository at a price below the market rate, it is only fair that the record of all previous Toshakhana gifts is also disclosed to the people for the sake of fairness and transparency. The ruling coalition’s initial reluctance did not help its public image. As the government works on a law, it should not forget the gifts received and retained by military officers and judges, too, from foreign dignitaries. They should surrender the gifts they receive to the Toshakhana and the rules that the politicians and bureaucracy are subjected to must also apply to them. There can’t be exceptions in a democracy.
Published in Dawn, February 25th, 2023
Balochistan’s misery
WHILE the violation of fundamental rights is a nationwide phenomenon, the situation in Balochistan is particularly acute. In this neglected corner of the country, dead bodies are discovered in unexplained circumstances, mass graves have been found, while various strands of violence affect the people.
Of late, there have been questions about the existence of private jails in the province. It had recently been reported that three bodies recovered from a well in Barkhan were those of Khan Muhammad Marri’s wife and two children. However, Mr Marri’s wife and some of his children were later recovered alive, as were his other offspring who were apparently illegally confined by provincial minister Abdul Rehman Khetran. Mr Marri was his bodyguard.
Though the minister is in custody and the provincial administration is probing the affair, unanswered questions remain about the identity of one of the bodies found in the well. According to a post-mortem report, one of the bodies is that of a teenage girl who was raped, tortured and shot. Her face was unrecognisable.
Two male bodies recovered from the same well turned out to be those of Mr Marri’s sons. The provincial administration must establish their identification, and track down those responsible for this horrific crime.
It is clear that in many parts of Balochistan, the writ of the state is absent, and the word of feudal sardars and ‘influentials’ is the law. This is one of the main reasons that outrages are so often reported from the province.
Though the establishment talks of multibillion-rupee projects such as CPEC and other schemes as ‘game changers’ for Balochistan, the ordinary people face a far grimmer reality. In the past, they have faced intense sectarian violence, while separatists have also indulged in the massacre of innocents.
The establishment maintains a huge security footprint in Balochistan yet life for its people has not improved. Instead, those suspected of being involved in anti-state activities go ‘missing’; not all are lucky to return home alive.
Quite clearly, the supposed fruits of development have yet to reach the people, fuelling a sense of alienation. The people of Balochistan have witnessed enough brutality and neglect.
The state must treat them as owners of their land, masters of their destiny, and equal citizens of Pakistan protected by the Constitution. If the violence continues, it will have a detrimental effect on national unity.
Published in Dawn, February 25th, 2023