The protest against Raymond Davis release, called by Jamaat-e-Islami, Tehrik-e-Insaf and others, fortunately did not result in a shutter-down strike as seen in the aftermath of the strike called by the Pakistan People's Party against the Supreme Court's verdict on Chairman National Accountability Bureau.
That protest was seriously flawed for four broad reasons - from the perspective of the common man and also from the perspective of the PPP as a political party. The strike call had a devastating impact on the economy of the country's financial hub with estimates of total daily loss to the economy as a consequence of a strike call going into billions of rupees. This has an obvious negative economic fallout on the common man especially as such a high loss estimate does not even begin to define the suffering of the daily wage labourer rendered incapable of feeding his family on that day. In addition calls for complete shutter down strike are invariably accompanied by burning and looting of public and private property which was also witnessed during the PPP strike last week. What is, perhaps, becoming disturbingly unique to Karachi are the accompanying killings.
To put this in its historical perspective around seven people were killed during the PPP strike on Friday while on another fateful day - May 12, 2007 - over 39 died and 150 injured with PPP grass root workers clearly the victims on that ominous day. Thus what works to one's advantage at one point in time may actually go against that party when out of power. It is extremely unfortunate that no lessons have been learned and the politicians blithely continue to have contempt for human life preferring instead to score points through a show of street power.
Second and equally abhorrent from the perspective of the common man the strike keeps people off the streets not because of any genuine support for the cause that is being supported by those who call the strike but out of fear of becoming victim to violence or looting. In this context to claim success of a strike call is hardly appropriate for any political party out of power, leave alone one that forms the government not only in the Centre but also in the province where the strike call was given.
Analysts argue that the call for strike action was also flawed from the perspective of PPP as a political party. First, the strike was limited to Sindh where even though the PPP has a clear majority yet it forms a coalition with the MQM and tellingly its coalition partner was not supportive of the strike. In addition, the PPP, as a national party with representation in all the provinces, also left itself open to criticism of fuelling the already simmering flames of provincial/ethnic disharmony. And second the government had a legal course open to it namely to file a review petition and it should clearly have exhausted this legal recourse prior to taking any action that would hurt the economic interests of the poor people of this country far more than of any other income group.
Strike calls by any party - be it in government or be it in power in a province or centre - is not an appropriate line of action. While it is the right of an individual or party to protest against any perceived 'unfairness' yet it must be borne in mind by all that the country is in the throes of a severe economic crisis and no action must be supported that would further debilitate the economy.
The most logical recommendation is for all political parties to agree not to incite their supporters to enforce a complete shutter down strike action in any city or province and any such call must be declared an act of treason. However the likelihood of such an agreement across the widening political divide seems unlikely especially after attack by the Leader of the Opposition and the counter attack by Babar Awan and the Sindh assembly member Sharjeel reminiscent of the disastrous 1990s.
To conclude, it is imperative for our ailing economy that calls for protests must be peaceful and law enforcing agencies must ensure that protests do not turn violent and offenders engaged in killing or looting must be apprehended and cases against them registered. But for this to happen the law enforcing agencies must have a free hand and that unfortunately remains a pipedream in this country.
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