NO doubt, the ‘do or die’ protest of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) against the Federal Government ended up in a tragedy with casualties on both sides but the incident has provided an opportunity to the government as well as the opposition to review their strategies. While the PTI’s founding Chairman Imran Khan has expressed concerns over loss of lives and the party retracted its earlier statement claiming ‘hundreds’ of its workers were killed at the D-Chowk, the government has constituted a 10-member joint task force to identify those involved in spreading malicious propaganda against the state of Pakistan which will present its report in 10 days. A statement issued by the PM Office noted that domestic and foreign-based media platforms are being used to perpetrate concocted, baseless and inciting news implicating State apparatus for committing serious human rights violations.
The task force, headed by Chairman Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), includes representatives from all relevant institutions and hopefully it will go deep into the issue to bring facts before the nation. Such an inquiry was necessitated because of the intensity of the propaganda unleashed through social media and other tools both at home and abroad with serious implications for the State of Pakistan and its security agencies. Some circles in the government believe that the drop scene of the PTI’s high stake ‘do and die’ call was a serious setback to the party and an intensive propaganda campaign was launched to divert attention from the political fallout of the D-Chowk retreat. Political compulsions apart, due care should be exercised to avoid bringing state institutions into bad light as such a recourse has consequences for the entire nation. Though the party is not directly acknowledging that it is suffering due to the flawed approach but there is ongoing internal debate in the party about what caused major embarrassment. Voices are being raised about clarity of decision-making, insistence to go ahead with the protest despite a clear order of the Islamabad High Court, lacklustre attitude towards dialogue and stubbornness showed to reach the D-Chowk at all costs. PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar has done well by negating propaganda about the number of casualties and health of the founding Chairman. Similarly, based on what happened, the Government is also reviewing its policies and implementing actions to handle such situations effectively in future. All this augurs well for the country.
