Circus in Islamabad

Published August 21, 2014

SO Imran Khan has heard of the civil disobedience movement(CDM)! Is he also aware of the circumstances under which it was used by the Congress Party in India in the early 1940s of the last century?

Congress governments, which were in power in most provinces in India, resigned and Gandhi announced his political‘master stroke’ at a time when the imperial power was fighting World War II against Hitler and imperial Japan. The Congress Party was the largest party in the subcontinent, with millions of workers in the country. They were determined to make things difficult for the British in the South-East Asian theatre of war.

Pakistan is also fighting a war at this time. Is the intention of this CDM to create difficulties in this war? Can the Pakistan public tolerate this kind of rogue behaviour?

In 1942, when Sir Stafford Cripps came with some very reasonable proposals for granting self-rule to India at the end of the war, Gandhi rejected these with the very famous remark that these constituted ‘ a post-dated cheque on a failing bank’. He lived to see a much worse fate for the subcontinent than the one Cripps had proposed. Imran had better read his history more intelligently!

I wouldn’t venture to describe the so-called civil disobediance movement a complete damp squib. But as someone remarked it was difficult to see what effect the refusal to pay taxes would have since only government servants paid taxes on their salaries. Perhaps Im would do the government a good turn by getting more people to come into the tax net so that they could first refuse to pay taxes and then start paying them after the movement is ended.

But what about those poor deluded PTI workers and followers out on the roads of Islamabad with nowhere to rest? They should wake up to reality. The sit-in ain’t going nowhere. In the real world an elected government in power is their best bet. They are not helping the anti-colonial movement but just a fantasy of a Brown Sahib.

Dr Hamida Khuhro
Karachi

(2)

IT is ironic that every Tom , Dick and Harry resort to what they think is a long march in order to achieve advance self-aggrandisement at the cost of the nation.

If we go by definition, march means to move along steadily, usually in a rhythmic stride and in step with others. It is not supposed to be in SUVs or other means of transport.

The long march was undertaken by Mao Zedong as a military retreat by the Red Army in traversing about 9,000km over 370 days to evade the pursuit of the Chinese National Army in the process of which about 60,000 people were killed.

As a strategy, civil disobedience was advanced by Henry David Thoreau in 1849 who was motivated by his disgust with slavery and the Mexican-American War.

Gandhi emulated it in the form of what is popularly known as the salt walk, which took place in 1930 and was an act of civil disobedience to protest against the salt tax, imposed by the British.

During the march, thousands of Indians followed Gandhi from his home near Ahmedabad to the Arabian Sea, a distance of about 240 miles, and it resulted in the arrest of thousands of people, including Gandhi.

So, the point being made is that our politicians make a mockery of everything, manifesting their lack of knowledge and shortsightedness.

Saleem Raza
Secretary( r), Govt of Balochistan
Quetta

(3)

THROUGH this letter I request the Supreme Court of Pakistan to take suo motu action and summon Imran Khan and his allies to have them tried for violating Sections 1 and 2 of Articles 5 and 6 by calling for civil disobedience movement. This movement is nothing but an act of high treason.

I also request the parliament to exercise its power conferred upon it by Article 6, Section 4 of the Constitution.

Lastly, I would request this nation to vehemently reject the civil disobedience movement. Long live democracy and Pakistan!

Muhammad Haris Zohaib
Karachi

(4)

THE country and the people are now cursed to pay for Imran Khan’s on-job learning. He will always learn the hard way and people will have to pay for it through the nose.

He has the ardour of a neophyte and the pride of an apt learner. This half-baked politician needs a lifetime to fledge for a flawless flight. This hard shell bigot will keep rolling full steam down a blind track only to jump it at the dead-end. This half-sighted visionary will comprehend the big picture pixel by pixel. This self-righteous snob will cuddle the creed close to his chest and cold-shoulder public wisdom. This cricket savvy hotshot is uninitiated in statecraft. This fund-raising champion is unschooled in the exigencies of public affairs.

Mr Khan will always drag feet in one rut after the other. No goading and pricking will budge him.

He is Robin Hood of sorts. He is the heroic outlaw fit only for a picturesque folklore, not a grand political epic. His actions spring from aristocratic codes of courtesy and condescension rather than the dictates of egalitarian ideals. His band of merry men are happily feeding on a pipe dream in the oblivion of a labyrinthine forest, ensconced at a cozy range from the royal court. Their misadventures are no material menace to its glory.

The lure of the alluring dream was too potent. Clouded now, yet it works its charm on the people to make their escape from the limbo impossible.

Ahmad Nadeem
Lahore

(5)

IMRAN Khan has repeatedly advocated solutions to motivate the people to address issues. One such motivation was the call to go to North Waziristan.

I went all the way from Karachi and joined Imran Khan’s procession to North Waziristan on my own vehicle as a silent and insignificant unknown member of the North Waziristan march.

After a night’s stay at Dera Ismail Khan the procession, with Imran Khan’s vehicle in the lead, moved towards North Waziristan at about 10am. On reaching a certain point, Mr Khan’s vehicle took a U-turn and without even a word to the caravan moved back on the track. The late departure from Dera Ismail Khan and then the U-turn showed that it was pre-meditated. It flabbergasted many, if not all.

Where on earth in a “Test match” has a captain left his team and gone himself to sleep in the dressing room?

If the Azadi march was to calumniate in a ‘civil disobedience movement’, the inconvenience, suspense and expense could and should have been avoided. The same announcement could have been made even without the Azadi march.

It is easy to proclaim oneself more like Mahatma Gandhi, not easy to forsake the breakfast at Bani Gala and follow Gandhiji’s lifestyle.

A Pakistani
Karachi

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2014

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