IT is the same tired play. As soon as the opposition announces a protest, the government reflexively cracks down. Citizens are roughed up and arrested, and the security officials who round them up later collect medals for their services.

There are no consequences for this abuse of state power. Indeed, it increasingly appears that the lead-up to a protest, and not the protest itself, is where the real political battle is fought. And all this is playing out at the moment on television screens and social media, as the PTI prepares for its Sept 27 march on Islamabad to demand its jailed founder’s release. The machinery of the state has kicked into action all over the country, armed with the usual pretexts of ‘prevention of violence’ and ‘protection of public infrastructure and property’.

The actions taken to thwart the march appear to be many. At least 155, perhaps more, preventive detention orders have been issued under the MPO; lists have been drawn up of PTI leaders and workers for further ‘preventive arrests’; police personnel’s leaves have been cancelled; containers and roadblocks are being prepared; restrictions have been placed on rallies and public gatherings; and Section 144 has been implemented in Punjab, with plans of a broader rollout soon.

Authorities undoubtedly have a responsibility to maintain order, and reasonable measures to discharge that responsibility are legitimate. But half a dozen overlapping instruments, deployed against a political party’s leadership and rank and file, cannot be considered reasonable by any stretch. Sadly, such actions only give the impression that even calls for protest are considered a thought crime in our society.

The heavy-handedness with which the government has been curtailing the opposition’s ability to exercise its lawful political rights should not be overlooked. Every democracy allows its citizens to express their will in different ways, including through peaceful public protests. That the government can and will prosecute political leaders and workers who actually break the law is not in dispute; the state has every right to respond firmly when violent protest tactics are employed deliberately.

However, the point is that deterrents already exist and do not require the pre-emptive detention of people who have broken no law. Past protests may have turned violent, but that history cannot be used as a justification to arbitrarily suspend constitutional rights for those who have caused no offence.

It is time to stop treating dissent as a security threat and allow the public a peaceful outlet to air its grievances. The consequences of not ceding that space gracefully will only grow more severe with time. A government confident in its own legitimacy does not need to criminalise the mere anticipation of a protest. Ours, evidently, is not that confident.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2026