Phenomenon Of Sit In Protests In Islamabad

Phenomenon of sit in protests in Islamabad

The disturbances are ongoing from before but when a new crisis takes place in Pakistan they forget the old issues and minds get entangled in new issues. Last week some bitter incidents took place which were grievous whereby three believers were martyred by terrorists in D.I. Khan and then in order to stop this the Pakistan army carried out an operation and in that operation a Pakistani army Major was killed. To this extent is Pakistan insecure and this entire nation is insecure for believers to the extent that even the Pakistani forces are not secure that an Army Major gets killed by the terrorists. Similarly one martyrdom took place in Karachi. We pray for the forgiveness of these martyrs and we seek patience from Allah for the family of these deceased.

The second incident which is under process in Pakistan is the protest in Islamabad by one group. This is a unique thing of sit in protests that has started in Pakistan. It has been almost 17 to 18 days whereby the protesters are sitting on the Islamabad and Rawalpindi Junction and have blocked the motorway. The government has become helpless in front of them. The sit in protest is about a matter whereby few weeks before some alterations were done in the Election candidates form document related to the Seal of Prophet hood (Khatme Nabuwat). Some ministry or authority made a new bill for every new election. In the past it was written that I swear and now it was changed to I confess. On this matter issue was made that with this change a conspiracy has been done whereby it was claimed that the Seal of Prophet hood has come under threat and movements started to secure that.

 The Parliament accepted the mistake and rectified it to the original statement but still this protest is ongoing. They are asking to bring out the criminals, victims, punish them and hand them over to them. This is known as non-issue and without any reason a crisis is being created and this face has been given. In reality the atmosphere that has been created in Pakistan and the elements, groups that have been formed in Pakistan this is all going to happen and will remain. Those who are thinking that this will change are simple minded because the way this has all changed its face the effects of this will be like this only. Since there are only few months left for the election coming up next year. The government has been a victim of crisis already; the Prime Minister has been suspended and declared as ineligible. The government is under pressure and the ground is being prepared for the next election. The political parties are making alliances for the elections. MMA (Muttahida Majlis e Amal) is again trying to revive itself. Certain religious groups which are highly extremist, prejudicial have made alliances with secular groups. The extremists have done alliance with secular groups. The party with which Jamaat e Islami had done alliance in last election now an extremist has taken the place of Jamaat e Islami to do alliance with the secular group. Sami ul Haqq group who are the hosts, supporters, guardians of extremism and are known as father of Taliban, Mujahideen and they have done alliance with Tahreek-e-Insaaf. In such situations at the time of elections both secularism as well as religious extremism become dubious

MMA was made at the time of Parvez Musharraf and they established government as well in border areas. They were Parvez Musharraf’s strengthening group and were known as the B team of Parvez Musharraf.  Parvez Musharraf became the President by one vote and that was given by them. On the outward they were in opposition but inside they were his companions and for the sake of power they were willing to do everything. The only difference between secular and religious groups is about tool. One has secularism as a tool with them and other has religion as a tool. Neither they are secular nor they are religious and they both don’t have faith on their schools. They both have faith only on power, personal gains, wealth, positions, posts and these things. They have faith only to get power whether it comes from fighting with each other or support each other whichever way. This is the political formula of Pakistan that in order to gain power everything is permissible. You can make sacredness also as a tool, means and with secularism you can make even non sanctitous things as means like nationalism, masses or religion

At present there is anxiety on this sit in protest because this is an unacceptable phenomenon which people are trying to understand as to what will come out with this phenomenon. This group that is doing protests in Islamabad and plan to spread across Pakistan are Barelvi Ahle Sunnah. Ahmad Raza is the follower of Barelvi sect. In Pakistan a major categorization if we do in Ahle Sunnah then there are four major Sunni sects. One are the Barelvi Sunnis who believe in celebrating the Birth Anniversary of Prophet, recited eulogies, going to shrines, graves of Saints etc. Against them are Deobandi who consider all these acts of remembering Prophets and certain elderly personalities as forbidden. The third group is Ahle Hadith who are mostly Salafi. In Deobandi also there are various branches like political, extremist and seminaries. Then the fourth ones are Sufism and sages; though they have their own identity like Qadri, Chishti but are still closer to Barelvi; we can even say they are the same.

At present those who are protesting against government and have stepped inside politics is the Barelvi group which is seen in Pakistan as a new Political power. Prior to this Deobandi Sunnis were in politics in full flow like the party of Fazalur Rehman; Jameatul Ulama e Islam whose guides are Sami ul Haqq. Ahle Hadith were also involved in politics before but Barelvi prior to this were not participating in politics this way. But now they have jumped into politics in a full fledge way. But their style, slogans, leadership, statements are highly dubious. They are sitting in the protests with sticks, batons; they have paralyzed two cities but Police is not having the courage to get them out. The government has this opinion that they have been made to sit intentionally, provoke the police and then police would force them to get up, then there will be conflicts between police and protestors; blood will spill and this blood would be used to create a wave of protests across the country and this way the 2018 elections will get insured from now itself as to who will win and lose. If the government shoots bullets on them then the party to which the current government belongs to will get highly condemned with the help of media and they will lose elections. This is the common view which they are giving and government, media are taking it in this perspective.

The way of Sit in protests has become very common and every sect, group wants to use this method of sit in protests to get their stance accepted. The government, state rulership is a big power which can only be challenged with people’s power which can paralyze the state. But the power stemming out from parties, groups, classes cannot stand for long. People can confront state but not the parties. But in Pakistan this has become a trend that you can try to get something accepted by the state with the sit in protests. The sit in protests are not done on the issues which are orally proclaimed instead behind the scene issues are something else. The actual issue between the protestors and the opponent against whom protests are done is somewhere else. In order to keep the opposition under pressure for that issue this politics of sit in protests is done. Since in these protests; parties, groups, organizations get involved and it can even reach a dangerous level which has happened in the past on several occasions. We can even say that this can even end up into a form of civil war specifically with the political instability prevailing in the state and this can impact every street in the country. An Internal civil war is a very bad war whereby the people get divided into groups and they fight, kill each other in every street and home. Such type of protests and reactionary actions can lead into that direction and its end cannot be predictive. Those who use these protests as a mean for their political interests are doing foolishness and in this protest politics is not at all in favor of nation. They want to give no importance to other nation, laws, constitution and just want to sit in for protests and get their stand accepted. If the issue is related to constitution then resolve it through law and court. Anyway these are all preparations for elections and its effects are coming on everything and if this adopts an extremist form then severe affects would be seen on ordinary people and will become the basis of more difficulties for Pakistan.