In a bizarre incident on Saturday, two Islamabad bound PIA flights originating from Karachi and Lahore ended up in Multan and Peshawar, respectively.
The Lahore flight landed at the Islamabad airport at 10:00 am, an hour and forty minutes behind schedule, still, the passengers were not allowed to disembark.
And after an hour-long wait it was directed to go to Peshawar, without telling the passengers where it was headed.
The plane returned to Islamabad at about 2:30 pm. Those who arrived in Multan instead of Islamabad, perhaps, could buy the authorities' story that their flight had been diverted for "operational reasons."
But it is beyond anyone's comprehension as to what "operational reasons" could prevent passengers from disembarking after it had landed in Islamabad, and could still fly to Peshawar.
The reason was political. The passengers included some politicians, including the firebrand PML-N leader, Tehmina Daultana, who were to attend the joint session of Parliament to be addressed by General Pervez Musharraf at 11.00 am which, for some reason, was delayed till 1200 noon.
Hence these passengers had to be kept away from Parliament until the speech was over. Tehmina Daultana, it may be recalled, had hurled bangles and taunts on a former president while he was addressing a joint session of both houses of Parliament.
Apparently, the authorities feared that she might do something equally or even more outrageous to insult President General Pervez Musharraf during his address to the joint session.
So they deemed it was necessary to keep her sitting in the plane while the President delivered his speech.
The perpetrators of this more loyal than the king scheme have done more harm than good to the government's image.
Not knowing the real reason behind their ordeal, those aboard the Lahore plane suffered most.
It was only natural for them to suspect the plane had developed some technical fault, which could end in disastrous consequences.
As the journey became nightmarishly long and disembarkation uncertain, the scene aboard the plane, in the words of one passenger, was that of utter fright as women started sobbing and children screaming. No one can be expected to accept this kind of unnecessary confusion and panic.
Such strong-arm tactics are anathema to democratic norms. Protest and its tolerance, it goes without saying, are an essential part of a functioning democracy.
So far General Musharraf has shown an appreciable level of tolerance for criticism. As time moves on, he will need more of that commodity. He may have already realised that military and politics work on entirely different principles.
The unity of command concept, that he likes to talk about whenever an opportunity presents itself, is of relevance only to military.
Politics calls for tolerance, accommodation of opposing views and at times trade offs. Assuming that the difference has been understood and absorbed, one hopes that those responsible for Saturday's incident will be taken to task so as to avoid such show of intolerance in future.