What comes as a shock and as a surprise is that why are these so called peace loving and liberal people criticizing Imran Khan for his Azaadi March as well as his questions on the elections. If this is a democratic country , I am afraid any citizen can come on to the streets to record its protest in a peaceful manner.
Unfortunately, this is a very complicated democracy.
I write this as a journalist, but before that I am a Pakistani. Its too disturbing to see a state of anarchy in Pakistan, the country that 67 years after its Independence is fighting for its survival in the very month it was formed. The Government calls itself a democratic one, practicing true democracy towards its people, what takes me aback is that democratic governments empowers its citizens, rather than oppress them, in a democratic state citizens are given due rights to question and ask for its rights.
Today, the people of Pakistan want to come on to the streets and are asking for the verification of their votes they had cast in the 2013 elections. Does this demand incite violence or chaos? To me it doesn’t do either. Why is the Government of third time elected premier so confused and baffled at the situation? To me it seems the citizens have decided to stand behind their leader and record their protest, and that leader has become a night mare for these so called elected democratic leaders.
Analyzing everything, Imran Khan is doing no wrong in leading a Azaadi March, he is an elected parliamentarian of the second largest party in Pakistan and he has every right to question the rigging in the elections. No body can deny that the major chunk of these elections was fraudulent and the recent reports that have surfaced through NADRA and Election Commission has verified those claims. The audit that Imran Khan had been asking for four seats was very much reasonable, the elected government should have happily agreed to it, but it did not making all kinds of excuses and delays.
And now it cannot save itself from the wrath of Khan, a man of his words. He had said to absorb all legal ways before hitting the streets; he has stood by his words and now he stands by his people who voted for him. The governance performance in the past 14 months have been aweful, people have been fed up, inflation has sky rocketed, energy crisis has hit rock bottom; amid all this the governing officials should not remain in the fantasy world to expect people still supporting them. PMLN has played too bad.
Furthermore, its adding troubles into its closet. Digging trenches, placing containers and withholding fuel in the main cities of Lahore Rawalpindi and Islamabad; how will these tactics help the government? In fact its making the people angry, frustrated and even more determined to join the protest. The so called intellectuals of the government who brag non-stop on television screens have short term memory, they are forgetting the fact that Pakistanis are a very resilient and resistant nation; nothing can beat their passion. luckily, these people follow a man who has a fighting spirit and who never gives up no matter what.
My free advice to the ruling officials is that let them protest and present their demands, things can be dealt peacefully without any force; this is the best they can do now. Behaving in a dictatorial manner, imposing tyranny is like jumping into the grave willingly. Pakistanis are not so easy to oppress, they will hit back even more harder and its the government that has to face the brunt. Its incompetence and inability to handle its own internal issues is fairly evident, bad times public accountability approaching.
The crowd that Kaptaan leads has always been civilized and peaceful, his track record has been clean, he has hosted rallies in every corner of Pakistan without any violence and chaos. The Punjab police on the orders of the Government should not incite any force on the unarmed innocent youth and workers of Pakistan Tehreek e Insaaf, keeping in mind that the PTI crowd always has a big number of women. One can disagree with Imran Khan on a lot of policies, but his constant stance of “CHANGE THROUGH BALLOT NOT BULLET” is worth appreciating.
There’s nothing wrong with having an Azaadi March, Imran has his democratic right to present his demands. The champions of democracy should understand this is a democratic country not a monarchy, better behave like democrats.
