ISLAMABAD: Twenty-seven-year-old Nijad Ali constantly fidgets in his seat and exhales deeply as he tries to gather his thoughts to recall the harrowing moments that unfolded before his eyes in the heart of Islamabad on the night of 26th November.
He witnessed the security personnel dispersing the protesting supporters of the founding chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Imran Khan, under a power blackout.
This mayhem, followed by a crackdown by law enforcers, resulted in casualties and injuries.
“A man in his late 40s fumbled about in the dark multiple times before collapsing to the ground. His clothes drenched in blood from a gunshot wound emitted a foul odour that almost knocked me down,” he recalls.
Ali is a staunch supporter of the PTI leader incarcerated in Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi since August 2023. The young man, a management associate from Abbottabad district of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, put himself in the line of fire while responding to the ‘final call’ for protest given by his leader.
With a choking voice, he goes on to say, “I tried to drag the injured man, whom I didn’t know, to safety but I had no other option but to leave him at fate’s mercy after hearing the echoes of marching boots and whimpers of embattled fellow protesters.”
Luckily, Ali escaped unharmed, but many others like him were not as fortunate.
Opposition leader in the National Assembly, Omar Ayub Khan, claimed the death of eight protesting workers, while “hundreds of others were either injured or arrested.”
However, the government refuted PTI’s claims, stating that no demonstrator was shot by security personnel. “No security personnel carried live ammunition on the day of the protest,” Federal Information Minister Attaullah Tarar stated during a press conference in Islamabad.
Likewise, Federal Minister for Petroleum Dr Musadik Malik came out with a statement, saying that PTI leadership wanted bloodshed and the Central government tried its best to minimise the collateral damage. “They [PTI leaders] have nothing to do with democracy. They only want anarchy.”
However, the frantic escape by PTI leaders in the wake of the crackdown repeatedly laid bare the prevalent culture of using workers as sacrificial pawns for political gains. “It is something deeply ingrained in Pakistan’s mainstream parties,” argues Ammar Ali Jan, a Lahore-based author, historian and political organizer.
Grassroots workers, Jan believes, are mere cannon fodder for the political leaders to advance their political agendas because people do not have their own organisations. “They don’t have their trade unions, student unions and farmers committees or any other kinds of political organisations that represent their interests [which is why they are forced to join a political party].”
When a party leader calls for a protest, ticket-holders with deep pockets use every means possible to drive people to the streets, and as a result, the relationship is very hierarchical and feudal-like, he says.
Aziz Ali Dad, a social scientist with an interest in the history of ideas, asserts: “These protests and the State retaliation with brute force are the symptoms of deep malaise in the body politic of Pakistan. These are abscesses that burst forth time and again with no remedy for the common man.”
It also shows, according to Dad, the disintegration of the social contract in Pakistan where structures are under the elite capture and the common man bears the brunt of the State violence and economic deterioration.
Prof. Riaz Ahmed Sheikh — dean of Social Science and Education at Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology (SZABIST) University, Karachi — holds a slightly different opinion on exposing workers to the State oppression.
He contends that despite knowing the potential repercussions, Opposition parties organise these protests to stay relevant because they know those in power have far more powerful propaganda tools to muffle their voices.
“We can put it this way that political parties put workers in peril to maximise their political capital and make their presence felt regardless of the cost.”
A Rawalpindi-based PTI leader — who wishes not to be named as he has been nominated in a number of cases — says that they were aware of the government’s intentions but sought to exert maximum pressure to get their leader and other political prisoners released from jail. “The illegitimate government is hell-bent on establishing a fascist order and we will keep resisting it,” he resolves.
Regarding the use of “brute force” to disperse the protesters, an official of the Islamabad police who wished not to be named justifies the raid. “We had credible information about potential unrest… Our action was necessary to maintain order.”
But critics like Ammar Ali Jan, Aziz Ali Dad and Prof Riaz Shiekh argue that such statements ring hollow in a system that prioritises suppression over solutions. The discussion around the topic boils down to a very pressing question: how can Pakistan move past this culture?
An Islamabad-based social development and policy adviser, Aamir Hussain, says the system can be transformed through dismantling the elite capture of resources. “Genuine change can be achieved through political literacy and mobilization at the grassroots level, unlike the strategies devised by political parties like the PTI,” he says.
Hussain believes political parties should evolve a leadership from the second and third tier of workers rather than relying on leaders who come from the ruling class. “Beneficiaries of the system will never talk about changing the status quo,” he asserts.
Moreover, he underscores the importance of fostering political dialogue between the Opposition and the government to break the stalemate.
In short, the ongoing political crisis calls for taking concrete, pragmatic, and practical steps to bridge the fast-deepening political schisms, resulting in immense polarisation. Otherwise, the country will continue grappling with political turmoil and the need to address the underlying causes of recurring violence grows, more urgently than ever, to steer the country on a path of healing and growth.
