After Faisalabad, what next?

In the wake of events as unfolded in the industrial city of Faisalabad on Monday it becomes obvious that the PTI's town by town shutdown plan is loaded with dangerous portents both for the country's democratic order and national security. Till late into night, it was a touch and go situation, as workers of the PTI and ruling PML (N) faced each other on the streets and squares for even more deadly clashes after the killing of a PTI activist during the day. The PTI was within its constitutional right to call for a shutdown, but not by force as its workers are alleged to have done. But the sure recipe for disaster was the ruling party's exhortation to its workers to confront the protestors on the streets. As police watched helplessly the two sides kept engaging each other in scuffles and brick-batting, that resulted in one death and injuries to more than a score of the contestants. Indeed it was the kind of shutdown promised by Imran Khan - who cares if a person lost his life and a family was snatched of its loved one, for the glory of the PTI's search for true democracy in Pakistan. The party is set to make more such sacrifices as the governments of the Sharif brothers are all set to take these sacrifices, both sides insisting they are legally correct in taking their respective uncompromising positions. Is it that the rulers have decided that enough is enough and that the PTI should be met squarely on the streets of Faisalabad instead of sitting across a negotiating table?
By withdrawing his call for resignation of Nawaz Sharif, the PTI chief had played his part. It was now the government's turn to play the ball by reviving the talks mediated by the 'political jirga' headed by Jamaat-i-Islami amir, Sirajul Haq. One must state the fact that while the PTI has been on the streets for nearly four months its protests have been orderly, and but for the PML-N's move to confront it physically, Imran Khan's shutdown in Faisalabad would have remained just one more erstwhile protest rally. But the Faisalabad incident has not only rejuvenated PTI's street power, it has put the government on the defensive, a turnaround made critical all the more by the Lahore tribunal's order to inspect the polling bags of NA-122 long demanded by Imran Khan. It is the constituency he lost to Ayaz Sadiq and had wanted to be reopened for a vote recount along with three others. The answer to a question about the fairness of vote in that constituency has indeed the potential to be a game changer in enduring PML (N)-PTI tussle for power. But in the meanwhile the Nawaz government should do its best to engage PTI and persuade it against seeking more shutdowns - because, every shutdown has the inbuilt fuse to trigger violence and bloodshed on the streets. Nothing can be ruled out in face-to-face confrontations of party activists, as was the case in Faisalabad on Monday, unlike the norm, when law-enforcement agencies try keeping protestors in control. No surprise then, to many in Pakistan and abroad, this exhibition of muscle power, courtesy the ubiquitous presence of TV channels, was nothing short of the advent of the much-feared civil war. If the political leadership doesn't behave prudently 'the history of 1977 can be repeated', says Sirajul Haq. No less perturbed is leader of opposition in the National Assembly, Syed Khursheed Shah, who warned from the floor of the house that "if anything happens to Pakistan then these two parties [PML-N and PTI] will be responsible". He expects Nawaz Sharif "to take the initiative and come forward", a plea, the prime minister would ignore at the risk of his political survival since it is the parliamentary opposition, which jointly stood behind him during the height of PTI-PAT joint pressure exerted from their sit-ins in August. Ours may be a failed democracy but we remain an open society and the man on the street knows on a day to day basis who is right and who committed the wrong.