IN the shadow of the rising tensions between the PTI and the PML-N, an even more foreboding spectacle is readying itself. The Difa-i-Pakistan Council, an umbrella group of hard-right religious parties and banned militant groups, is preparing to hold rallies next week in Islamabad and Azad Kashmir to protest the violence in India-held Kashmir. Undoubtedly, the ongoing crackdown in the latter deserves the strongest condemnation and the plight of the people there ought to be highlighted at every forum. Yet, there is something deeply troubling about the return of the DPC — a delegation of which met the interior minister yesterday — and its determination to once again grab the national spotlight. Where the PTI, the third-largest party in parliament and the second-highest vote-getter in the last general election, has a democratic right to protest, the DPC’s case for doing so is far more ambiguous. To begin with, several of its constituent groups are either banned or their leaders are on various local and international watch lists. Moreover, most of the religious political parties in the DPC have an ambivalent attitude towards democracy, constitutional supremacy and the rule of law.

Arguably, a mass protest by the DPC in the federal capital and in AJK could end up hurting the Kashmir cause internationally more than helping it. An outside world already impatient with Pakistan’s perceived lack of progress in challenging certain militant groups may become even less willing to listen to the country’s historically and morally correct stance on the Kashmir dispute. Locally, too, the DPC rally poses a challenge for a government that is already contending with pressure on multiple political and institutional fronts. What the government should most definitely avoid is to try to politicise the matter, as some of the PML-N’s spokespersons attempted to do on Thursday when suggesting that the PTI and DPC are planning violence in the federal capital. A potentially serious question of national security should not be tarred by the usual brush of politics.

What, then, should the government do? Allowing or disallowing the proposed DPC rallies to go ahead as announced is only a small part of the challenge — the central issue is how an amalgamation such as the DPC is able to both pledge and feel confident about delivering a grand spectacle? The withholding of no-objection certificates for rallies or the imposition of Maintenance of Public Order notifications against sundry DPC leaders will be no more than the flimsiest of band-aids. What the country needs are institutional responses to deep-rooted challenges. The national counter-extremism policy of Pakistan, to be formulated by a committee working under the banner of Nacta as announced recently, can become one of the elements of an organised, institutional response to the extremism challenge in Pakistan today. Entities such as the DPC cannot be wished away or temporarily swept out of sight — a long-term approach is the only viable option.

Published in Dawn October 22nd, 2016