Intrigues against Democracy

Intrigues against Democracy


“Politics is a bloody game.” A common statement really has its strong message and the events of this week prove it exact. The shameful incident with Ghulam Arbab Rarhim in Sindh Assembly on 7th April was highly condemned by all political parties. The incident happened when Mr Ghulam Arbab was going out of the Assembly and an angry mob of activists encircled him and hurled abuses on him. Meanwhile one man hit Arbab’s face with a shoe where as other workers did try to hit him with fists and shoes. The security persons encircled him and took him to his car. The angry mob didn’t leave him yet and attacked to his car and broke its window glasses.

In response, MQM and PML(Q) threw up the responsibility of this incident on PPPP as the slogans were Pro-Bhutto however an immediate press statement from Bilawal House denied any link with the event by saying it a plot against PPP which involves PPP (Shaheed Bhutoo) workers.

The second incident happened with former Minister for Law and Parliamentary affairs Dr Sher Afgan Niazi when he was on a visit to Malik Noor Ahmad Awan, an advocate, to discuss his election petition and hundreds of lawyers converged there and kept waiting four hours for the former minister to come out. The lawyers were demanding to meet Mr Afghan as they were having eggs and shoes in their hands to throw.

When the situation went out of control, Lahore police Chief Malik Iqbal requested Chaudhary Aitezaz Ahsan to reach so that Mr Niazi could be rescue. Mr Aitezaz reached to the place and requested lawyers to disperse peacefully which couldn’t make any effect on the mob. As soon as Mr Niazi was brought out mob swooped down on him from all directions. They seized him by the collar and dragged him in to the vehicle. They thrashed him with fists and kicks and repeatedly were punching him after broking the windows of the Eidhi Ambulance in which he was being bored by Police officers and Aitezaz Ahasan. To see the violent mob Aitezaz climbed over the ambulance and requested them to leave it consequently he was rescued.

The event once again strained the environment of country, especially when the session of Punjab Assembly was going to be assembled next day. After the event Mr Ahsan called a press conference in which he highly condemned the incident and decided to resign from his office of President of the Supreme Court Bar Association after failing in his effort to persuade lawyers to allow Dr Niazi a safe passage.

These two shameful events have some similarities which leave some clue to reach the actual culprits. The first is that the security lapses definitely played their visible role in both objectionable occurrences. Mr Aitezaz told the press conference that he again and again asked officers to call more police but they didn’t pay heed on his request as the mob was extremely violent and the number of police officers was not sufficient enough to control them. And when with the great effort Mr Niazi was bored in an ambulance, the driver of was not there to drive which showed some pre-planned conspiracy behind this whole event. The same security lapses were identified in the event with Dr Arbab, when the administration and police allowed everyone to enter in assembly by issuing them passes without investigation.

The second similarity is that the two personalities which were targeted formally belonged to PPPP before their inclusion in PML(Q), so that the direction of this conspiracy could go to the ruling party PPPP. However the PPPP is continuously working on the policy of reconciliation since the results of election are declared. The co-chairman Mr zardari is continuously trying to make all political parties unit in the democratic process and at this point of time he himself cant afford any such incident.

The third similarity is that when these incidents happened the administrative control was under the caretaker government who was actually responsible to ensure security measures in both provinces, so the ultimate credit of both event go to them.

Another important factor cant be ignore that the environment of political reconciliation which emerged after the elections was totally negating the role PML(Q) in the form of opposition party which made them insecure about their status in new government. It can be possible and they maneuver these incidents to create chaos in country so that they could oppose the ruling parties on these grounds as after elections Shiekh Rasheed gave a statement that now the bloody politics would take place in Pakistan. Unconsciously he revealed the conspirators of these events in his statement.

The intrigues to sabotage the democratic process are active however the people of Pakistan are in quest of peace and progress in country. These incidents are defaming Pakistan on international level beside those who have the opinion that “democracy doesn’t suits to Pakistan.” The new government requires being vigilant enough to smell all conspiracies so that the heavy damages could be avoided.

However the situation demands from Pervaiz Musharraf to resign who didn’t even give a single statement on these incidents, therefore people of Pakistan are becoming violent to see him out of the scene so that bloody politics could end up. This situation could get a better turn only in the absence of Musharaff, who is continuously backing the conspirators in politics to derail the democratic process.

Zamurrad Awan
zamurredawan@yahoo.com