IF the superintendent of police in charge of the operation against Minhajul Quran’s headquarters brought along characters like Gullu Butt, whose performance people saw on television, and who embraced and patted him for a job well done, it is not difficult to imagine how he would have organised and conducted the rest of the operation.

And then we had PML-N’s henchmen, who it seemed were trying to make up for the lack of performance in their ministries and hit hard at those who were protesting and criticising the government’s conduct.

And the action taken by the chief minister — making the concerned SP an officer on special duty — is too little and sounds more like an attempt to pacify public anger temporarily.

There is the possibility of reinstatement of the police officer to his former position or to an even more lucrative and prominent one as a reward for his loyalty once the dust is settled.

It is inconceivable that in a province where the chief minister keeps every thing under his thumb, and takes notice of even relatively less severe incidents, the police would have taken the action that they took without seeking clearance from higher authorities.

S.R.H. Hashmi
Karachi

(2)

THOUGH the PAT activists were wrong in throwing stones at the police and creating hurdles while the police were trying to remove barriers from the road surrounding Dr Tahirul Qadri’s Minhajul Quran Complex, what the police did was terrible.

However, more shocking was Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s press conference, where he said he was unaware of the incident.

One wonders if the rulers were really unaware of the terrible incident, or if the Punjab police is an ‘unbridled’ horse which is not in the control of ‘his majesty’. Defending the police action, the newly-appointed Punjab Inspector General of Police Mushtaq Ahmed Sukhera, while talking to the media, said: “Police had to retaliate. They (protesters) were using AK-47s. They were firing indiscriminately on the policemen”. The question arises: if this was the case why was only one policeman killed?

On the other hand, the police openly violated human rights, opening fire on unarmed protesters. It seems as if the police in Pakistan have a license to kill innocent people. Over the years law-enforcement agencies across the world have learnt new techniques to handle such situations like the use of rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannons, but our police are lagging behind.

The people will get justice only if those responsible are brought to justice.

Hafiz Muhammad Irfan
Islamabad

(3)

WHILE the change of political regime through mass uprising may hardly produce structural transformations, the rhetoric of the Pakistan Awami Tehreek for revolution has only been reinforced by the heinous murder of a number of its innocent supporters and workers.

Politicians and media specialists are debating the sanity of the provincial and federal governments in carrying out such a show of raw force.

As predicted by Hazrat Ali, societies and states cannot continue to exist in the presence of injustice. Revolution in Pakistan has been long overdue.

However, broken, bullied, and bigoted people can never bring about meaningful revolutions.

The revolutions promising and actually delivering new worlds and better tomorrows require organisation.

Increasing mass unrest can invite the takeover of the federal and provincial governments by the armed forces. In this scenario, while all existing political parties may be the losers, the nation will also lose any chance of real salvation.

Dr Abdul Raoof
Lahore

Published in Dawn, June 20th, 2014