WHEN the state fails to listen to people’s grievances, citizens have a right to peacefully take to the streets to ensure that their voices are heard. While street protests and sit-ins should be the option of last resort, sadly in Pakistan they have become the only resort to catch the attention of a callous power elite.

Disaffected populations have once again taken to the streets in the biting cold of Parachinar, as well as in Gwadar, to attract the state’s attention. In the Kurram sit-in, which has been going on for a week, local people are calling for an end to the de facto blockade of their area. The blockade has resulted in a severe shortage of essentials, as well as a critical situation in hospitals, as patients have to be airlifted to other cities, while medicines are also running short.

Moreover, the demonstrators have placed the bodies of two men who were brutally beheaded while on their way to Parachinar at the protest site. Sit-ins in solidarity with Kurram’s people are also being held in Karachi. Meanwhile in Gwadar, the All Parties Alliance has been staging a sit-in for over 10 days. The protesters say the closure of the border with Iran for trade has economically devastated the Makran region, while they also face shortages of electricity and drinking water.

This is not the first time people have been protesting in harsh weather, refusing to bury the bodies of their loved ones. Quetta has witnessed several such sit-ins, including in 2021 when Hazara miners were massacred in Mach, as well as in the aftermath of the massive terrorist bombings of 2013. Meanwhile, the Baloch have marched up to Islamabad demanding their fundamental rights, while Makran has seen huge sit-ins over the years calling for civic facilities.

There was similar unrest and mass protests in Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan in the outgoing year. Most of the protesters’ calls — the right not to be slaughtered by terrorists; the right not to have their loved ones whisked away by ‘unknown’ persons; the right to make an honest living, etc — are entirely valid. Yet successive governments have failed to recognise the legitimacy of these demands, which is why people have no choice but to return to the streets in protest.

In a functioning polity, the people’s grievances should be channelled through their elected representatives. Unfortunately, in Pakistan, either lawmakers are not heard by the powers that be, or are too busy squabbling over the crumbs of power.

The nightmarish blockade of Kurram must end immediately, and the state must provide its people security, while the genuine demands of Makran’s people must also be met. In the long run, the power wielders need to ask themselves why communities across Pakistan are in tumult.

Published in Dawn, December 27th, 2024