ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has said that holding protests is a democratic right of every one but the difference between a political protest and civil disobedience should be made clear.

These views were expressed by the interior minister during a meeting with Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) chief Sirajul Haq who had called on him at the Punjab House here on Monday.

“We have tolerated the protests and sit-ins [of the PTI] with great patience. But now the time has come that the difference between the democratic and political protest and civil disobedience should be made clear,” an official handout quoted the minister as saying at the meeting.

Chaudhry Nisar said there was no democracy existed in which “businesses and roads are blocked and lives of common citizens are paralysed in the name of protests”.

“Instead of giving lectures on rule of law and democracy, we should implement it,” the minister said in an apparent reference to the speeches of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan.

Chaudhry Nisar said all political parties would have to play a role in maintaining law and order in the country. He said if a party had some complaints it should adopt a legal course to redress them.

He assured the JI chief that the PML-N was ready to extend its cooperation for the betterment of the country and to maintain law and order.

Mr Haq, according to a JI spokesman, urged the minister to ensure that no harsh statement was issued from any government functionary and that an atmosphere conducive to talks be created.

Welcoming the resumption of talks between the government and the PTI, the JI chief said the two sides had displayed “political maturity” by agreeing to hold talks.

Later, PPP Senator Rehman Malik called on the JI chief. Both leaders appreciated the resumption of dialogue between the government and the PTI and called for expediting the process and making it fruitful.

In a joint statement, they said it was a consistent view of the opposition Jirga that solution to the prevailing political impasse lay in the formation of a judicial commission for transparent and independent inquiry into alleged rigging in the last year’s elections.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2014