ACCORDING to media reports, a meeting of the leaders of the ruling party, chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan, decided to allow the opposition parties to hold protest rallies and organize public meetings as long as these remain peaceful. The PM is reported to have said that peaceful protest is a democratic and constitutional right of every citizen and his government would not deny the opposition parties this right. However, he added that nobody would be allowed to create chaos in the country under the guise of protest.
This is a realistic decision of the Prime Minister and is reflective of the confidence of the Government to deal with the challenge thrown by the opposition parties. Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), an alliance of about a dozen political parties, has announced a series of public meetings to raise public opinion against policies of the Government with ultimate objective of bringing about a change. There were reports that the Government was planning to take refuge behind latest Coronavirus situation to deny holding of public meetings and rallies to the opposition. In fact, some circles in the opposition believed that statements of the Government leaders about a surge in Coronavirus cases was an attempt to create conditions for denial of rallies to the opposition on health and safety grounds. This is despite the fact that apart from the Government, even Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah too said on Monday that Karachi’s Covid-19 positivity rate had risen to 4.32 per cent during the past five days. This shows the issue of positivity is not a political stunt but a ground reality necessitating adoption of precautionary measures against spread of the virus. However, there is hardly any justification to ban rallies on this pretext when we liberally allowed Moharram processions, attended by thousands of people, only recently. In this backdrop, the apparent policy of the opposition to deal with the threat politically is a sagacious decision and hopefully it would help prevent further heightening of tension between the Government and the Opposition. The Opposition too is expected to demonstrate maturity by avoiding any semblance of chaos and lawlessness during its movement.
