Strong Protesters, Weak Government The protesting leaders are thundering in Islamabad, while Nawaz Sharif and his lieutenants are also doing battle with the Imran-Qadri duo. However, the former lot is not fighting back against the captain and the revolutionary as hard as they could. Their feebleness and vacillation stem from the way they handled Imran Khan’s allegations of rigged polls and Mr Qadri’s Minhaj fiasco. So both leaders exploited the government’s vulnerability and waged a war against the incumbents relentlessly. Their speeches to mammoth crowds plus frequent interviews on different TV channels predominantly eroded the credibility of the civilian leadership in the eyes of the public. What is more, Sharif’s allies in and out of parliament too played a major role in the ruination of the PML-N administration. Instead of placating Imran Khan on his allegations about rigging in four National Assembly seats during May 11 polls, the government ministers always defended their landmark electoral victory vigorously. As the captain’s legal challenges went unanswered, he took more and more courage from their pusillanimous approach. When the police gunned down and injured the PAT loyalists a little after mid-June, Dr Qadri demanded of the government to investigate the brutality. Since the government did not respond to Dr Qadri positively, the dude upped the ante. Even many of the cleric’s enemies backed up Qadri’s stance on the Model Town massacre and asked the Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to step down. Sharifs, listening to his advisors, chose to turn a deaf ear to the Qadri-Imran demands. The grievances of both the aggrieved parties led to the Imran-Qadri nexus. The Lahore High Court directed the police to register an FIR against Sharif brothers and 19 other government functionaries. Then the leaked reports of the judicial commission pertaining to the Model Town tragedy also held the government responsible for the heavy casualties. First the head of the state sought help from the army’s top brass for ending the political impasse and the next day he backed out; when the ISI chief affirmed that the military intervened on the request of the premier, he exposed Sharif’s lie. The clashes between anti-government protestors and police over the past few days have further chipped away at the power of the Sharif dynasty.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Sep 2014 15:54:44 +0000