Flight change blamed for poor turnout: APDM calls for protests today
By Amir Wasim
ISLAMABAD, Sept 10: It was the first real opportunity in years for the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) to demonstrate its street power, but despite tall claims by its leaders about bringing out nearly a million supporters to receive their leader returning from seven years of exile, only a handful of diehard activists tried to force their way and clashed with riot police, with many of them being injured or arrested a few kilometres away from the scene of the real drama — the Islamabad airport.
There was certainly an element of overkill as the authorities deployed thousands of police and paramilitary troops around the airport, which was cordoned off, with big trucks and trailers blocking the link roads. At the same time, and as has been the case many times in the past, police were given open licence to use brute force to push back the opposition activists. And this is exactly what they did, mercilessly beating many PML-N workers and firing tear gas shells indiscriminately and in dozens when the security forces clearly outnumbered the activists.
There were sporadic clashes near district courts in Rawalpindi, with police using tear gas and baton-charge to disperse the protesters. The skirmishes went on for quite some time, but were nothing compared to the agitation by some parties in Rawalpindi and other parts of the country over the past years.
Most of the senior party leaders either ‘volunteered’ themselves for detention by deciding to stay at their homes or offices or got arrested in the morning while attempting to move in a procession in Islamabad and, of course, in the presence of a huge battery of television camerapersons.
Equally bizarre was the absence of activists of other parties in the All Parties’ Democratic Movement (APDM), particularly those from the Jamaat-i-Islami and other components of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal.
Perhaps one big reason for the muted response was the kind of crackdown the authorities had launched over the past week during which nearly 4,000 PML-N supporters were rounded up in Rawalpindi and other parts of the country. This forced a large number of party activists to go into hiding, but then very few resurfaced on Monday to try and to receive their leader at the airport.
The party leadership admitted that the response was lukewarm, but blamed the change of flight time at the eleventh hour and the ‘unprecedented security measures’ taken by the government even after the large-scale arrests.
PML-N secretary-general Iqbal Zafar Jhagra was convinced that it was largely because former prime minister Nawaz Sharif changed his flight at the last minute, and instead of arriving at around noon by a Gulf Air flight, opted for PIA, which came nearly four hours early. “I don’t know why he did so,” Mr Jhagra told Dawn. “The party leadership in Pakistan was not consulted before the decision.”
Some said that in addition to the arrests, the government’s counter-offensive in the form of making public the ‘exile deal’ through visiting Saudi and Lebanese leaders and the admission by Mr Sharif in London that he had signed a paper for taking the family to Saudi Arabia, had a demoralising effect on the opposition workers. But many supporters of the opposition said it was largely the absence of coordination and lack of experienced people who could handle street politics which resulted in such a poor turnout.
Some PML-N workers told reporters they lost hopes when they were told in the morning that some of the top party leaders, including acting president Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, and opposition leaders Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Qazi Hussain Ahmed had been put under house arrest on Sunday night.
“It seems that the APDM leaders courted arrest instead of being arrested,” remarked an expert while commenting on reports that none of the opposition leaders or workers could reach the airport even though Mr Sharif remained there for more than four hours. “Had there been a crowd of 5,000 supporters outside the airport, it would not have been easy for the government to deport Mr Sharif,” he said.
PML-N leader Javed Hashmi refuted suggestions that the leadership should have gone into hiding. “It is not appropriate for politicians to go underground,” he said. “We are not fighting a guerrilla war. We are civilians and believe in peaceful struggle.”
In the morning it became clear that none of the opposition politicians would be able to reach anywhere close to the airport. In fact, the APDM leaders could not go beyond Zero Point and most of them were arrested there. Former president Rafiq Tarar, PML-N chairman Raja Zafarul Haq, secretary-general Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, information secretary Ahsan Iqbal, Tehmina Daultana, Mohammad Mehdi, Pukhtukhwa Milli Awami Party chief Mehmood Khan Achakzai and PMAP Senators Abdul Rahim Mandokhel and Raza Mohammad Raza were taken to Aabpara police station and then to the Police Lines Headquarters. Punjab PML-N president Sardar Zulfiqar Khosa, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and Raja Ashfaq Sarwar were picked up from a house in F-10/1.
Talking to Dawn, Mr Jhagra and PML-N acting president Makhdoom Javed Hashmi said the workers had been directed to reach the airport by noon. However, they said, Mr Sharif took the decision to board the PIA flight at the eleventh hour and, therefore, the workers could not reach the airport at 8.30am.
Mr Hashmi asked how a person in the custody of the NAB could be handed over to Saudi Arabia.
Mr Iqbal said the APDM had called for a countrywide protest day on Tuesday.
