KARACHI: Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal said on Tuesday the six-point agreement that ended the Faizabad sit-in was not a “desirable” one, but it saved the country from the threat of “religion-based violence”.

In an attempt to dismiss a widely-held view that the army-brokered accord with protesters amounted to total surrender on the part of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government, Mr Iqbal tweeted that although the agreement “was not desirable” the government was left with no choice.

“Document of finishing dharna [sit-in] was not desirable but there was little choice because if [the] situation had persisted [for] another 24hrs there would be riots,” he tweeted, according to dawn.com.

But an hour later, he tweeted again, claiming that the civil and military leadership had acted “collectively” in making the deal with the protesters.

“Civil & military leadership acted collectively 2 save the country from threat of religion-based violence. We must heal wounds 2 unite nation,” read his tweet.

Army’s assurance

Tehreek-i-Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah chief Khadim Hussain Rizvi revealed that it was the army which ensured that the government met the protesters’ terms.

“We told them [the government] that we cannot talk to you,” Mr Rizvi told Samaa TV on Tuesday. “Then the army came in the middle and our companions met army and ISI [Inter-Services Intelligence] bigwigs, generals, etc.”

“They told us they will get all of our demands accepted,” he said in a startling revelation that shed light on why the government seemed to have capitulated so completely to the protesters, according to dawn.com.

Army assured protesters of getting their demands accepted, claims sit-in leader

Mr Rizvi said his team never met the interior minister — who also put his signature on the six-point agreement — and it “must have been” the army leadership which asked Mr Iqbal to sign the document.

After the weeks-long protest, which virtually paralysed the capital and led to several people losing their lives, the government finally yielded to the protesters on Monday after law minister Zahid Hamid resigned from his post.

The minister’s resignation came in the aftermath of Saturday’s botched operation against protesters at Faizabad and successful negotiations with leaders of the sit-in late on Sunday night.

Six people were killed and hundreds wounded during the operation. The terms of the agreement included blanket immunity for all those arrested during the crackdown on the agitating protesters.

The agreement between the government and the protesters to end the sit-in has subsequently faced much criticism.

Most prominently, Islamabad High Court Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui had on Monday questioned how the army could act as a mediator between the government and a group that had committed an act of terrorism.

“You have put a question mark over civilian supremacy. What have you done?” the judge asked Interior Minister Iqbal during proceedings regarding the sit-in by religious parties.

“It is also very strange that efforts of Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa have been acknowledged in the following words: ‘This agreement materialised through the special efforts of chief of army staff and his team’,” the judge noted in his order.

“Prima facie, [the] role assumed by the top leadership of army is besides the Constitution and law of land. Armed forces, being part of the executive, cannot travel beyond its mandate bestowed upon it by the organic law of the country i.e. the Constitution.”

Published in Dawn, November 29th, 2017