ISLAMABAD: Participants of a consultation on the 2014 dharna believe it was part of a conspiracy and that the sit-ins were being orchestrated by other players.

At the ‘HRCP Consultation on the 2014 Dharna and the Right to Protest and Agitation’, which was organised by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on Friday, speakers talked about PTI’s and the Pakistan Awami Tehreek’s (PAT) marathon sit-in, which lasted 126 days, on Kashmir Avenue and Constitution Avenue.

National Party (NP) leader Senator Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo said that because he was part of a political party himself, he could not object to protests staged by others and that it was one of the basic rights.

Participants of HRCP consultation thought other ‘elements’ had choreographed the sit-ins

He said the party had supported others when they were protesting, like the lawyers’ movement, because the protests were for a good cause and were in the interests of the people of Pakistan.

However, he said, Dr Tahirul Qadri had come in as a representative of the GHQ and that his demands were not made with the people of the country in mind.

Mr Bizenjo said: “No one knows why and for what he came to Pakistan and why he went back without fulfilling his promises.”

Saying that the sit-ins were not staged with good intent the NP leader alleged: “[The party] supported the government but the media turned against us, which exposed the news organisations. They too, were being instructed to do so by someone else.”

He continued: “It was a protest that started from the GHQ and ended at Parliament House. The protesters marched into PTV offices but came out when an army officer told them to.”

He mused about how the PTI and PAT never talked about important issues like the missing people in Balochistan and alleged that PAT protesters were paid to be part of the sit-ins and that their CNICs had been confiscated to ensure they would not leave.

Awami National Party (ANP) leader, Bushra Gohar, said they could not be called sit-ins because they were being orchestrated by someone else.

“Some objectives of the sit-ins were achieved because they helped weaken the political government,” she added.

Another objective of the dharna, she said, was to depoliticise the youth.

Ms Gohar wondered how someone managed to come from abroad and organise a massive sit-in.

A PPP leader, Qamar Zaman Kaira, said that while everyone had the right to protest, the rights of other people should not be violated while protesting.

“Markets, schools and public offices had to close, but the protesters did not care about that. Some traders then, started protesting against the dharna,” he said.

He said Imran Khan’s demand for probing the general elections were made in the interests of the people, but “demanding the prime minister’s resignation was wrong”.

Mr Kaira said Dr Qadri’s demands and intentions were still not clear.

Columnist and poet Haris Khaliq said that while protests were every party’s right, they also had to be evaluated and analysed. He said the sit-in of 2014 implied that while the people of Punjab can hold protests on Constitution Avenue for months on end, the people of Balochistan, and other provinces, could not do the same for just two days.

Blaming the news media for this, he said: “The media is not interested when former Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani asks who gave Osama bin Laden a visa, but it does talk about the necklace.”

The ornament was donated by the Turkish first lady which the former premier is reported to have kept with himself.

Journalist Matiullah Jan mused that the government, and politicians, made claims that other elements had orchestrated the sit in and even had tapes of the attack on PTV, but no one was taking any action against those elements.

He said politicians themselves could not take any measures against these elements when some FIRs had been registered as well, and they expected the media to take a stand against them.

HRCP Secretary General I.A. Rehman concluded the event by saying that though to protest was the right of every person, protesters should take care that the rights of others should not be violated and that no one should have to suffer because of it.

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2015