IT is a pity that instead of looking into the grievances of the sugarcane growers protesting near Bilawal House in Karachi on Monday, Sindh’s agriculture minister called the ugly violence that broke out a conspiracy. It is on such occasions that the title ‘Pakistan Peoples Party’ appears to be a contradiction in terms. There is nothing more appalling than a political party which claims to have the people, especially the poor, at the centre of its existence going after those pressing for a fair price for sugarcane. The protesters, who were brutally dispersed by police, said they had only wanted to take their demand to PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. They were met with force and the only explanation the police could come up with was that, it being located in the red zone, the administration couldn’t quite risk allowing the demonstrators to approach Bilawal House. The administrative action built on this premise was a disaster and threatens to fuel more protests.

Perhaps a better attempt at clarification was made by the chief minister who argued that the blame for the problem facing the growers actually lay with the federal government. He said that the provincial government was trying to remove the hurdles so that the sugarcane growers would get a fair price. It is baffling as to why the PPP couldn’t find a way for one of its senior members, if not Mr Bhutto Zardari himself, to convey the same message to the protesters. In the event, by using force, the PPP earned itself some negative points — even when, according to its own account, it was the federal government the growers needed to protest against. The truth is that the Sindh government mishandled the situation and is now faced with the prospect of more demonstrations in the days to come. This is the worst kind of publicity a party which is trying to assert its credentials to retain its hold on power in Sindh and stage a comeback on the national stage can afford at this moment.

Published in Dawn, December 13th, 2017