ISLAMABAD, Sept 28: Friday’s Supreme Court verdict was welcome to President Gen Pervez Musharraf’s camp and unwelcome to his opponents but what brought joy to the common man was that there was no heavy-handed security on the occasion.
There were no road blockades and no Red Zone and traffic flowed normally on the Constitution Avenue.
Police stood alert outside the Supreme Court but not in a menacing manner.
In fact the policemen did not even react when hit by the rotten eggs and tomatoes which some elements in the small opposition group standing outside the court started hurling at the court building after hearing the verdict.
They intervened only when a scuffle started between the dirt throwers and those objecting to that. Policemen surrounded them and separated them.
A senior police officer told Dawn that the police have registered a case about the incident on its own.
A group of Christians also staged a demonstration near the court but to hail its decision and to congratulate President Musharraf on being allowed to hold two offices simultaneously.
Absence of heavy-handed security and the unusual civilised manners of the policemen impressed the onlookers. “That proves law and order issues can be handled without being brutish,” said one.
This change of heart and tactics on the part of police and their overlords took place after the Supreme Court took the local administrations to task for disrupting civic life by putting Islamabad and Rawalpindi under virtual siege the previous day.
In sharp contrast to Thursday, life remained normal in the two cities on Friday.
Although there were no restrictions on going to the Supreme Court, only a handful of activists of Jamaat-i-Islami, Pakistan People’s Party and Pakistan Muslim League-N reached there.
Initially a small number of police personnel were seen outside the Supreme Court. But shortly after the verdict was announced a large number poured out from different directions, commanded by Senior Superintendent of Police Naeem Khan.
They cordoned off the entrance to the Supreme Court and asked the journalists and political activists waiting there to move away.
HURLING OF EGGS AND TOMATOES: The situation became tense when some among the crowd started hurling rotten eggs and tomatoes at the court building to express their anger at the verdict.
PPP worker Jamil Abbasi was beaten up by Jamaat Islami workers for throwing eggs when their leader Farid Ahmed Paracha was advising against it.
A few eggs splashed on Chief Security Officer of the Supreme Court, Inspector Arif Baig and other policemen, staining their uniforms. Police intervened to stop them and disperse them.
Sensing the ugly situation JI leaders asked their workers to leave the place, announcing that the party was not responsible for the incident.