Marching forward

Maulana Fazalur Rehman’s march passed through Multan, reached Lahore on early Wednesday morning where it was greeted by PPP and PML-N workers and then moved on towards Rawalpindi. The size of the march has been impressive and so far at least any violence has been avoided. We hope this will remain the case. On the sidelines of the march there have however been incidents that leave an unpleasant taste. Former Seantor Hamdullah’s nationality was brought under question with NADRA declaring him an ‘alien’. This was however rectified after the IHC pointed out that former Senator Hamdullah Saboor had sat in the Senate for his tenure, and that one of his sons was serving in the Pakistan Army. In Islamabad Maulana Kafayatullah, a prominent JUI-F leader, has also been arrested on charges under MPO laws.While the government has emphasized that the marchers must stick to the plan they had agreed to and gather only at agreed spots in federal capital, the government itself appears occasionally to demonstrate some signs of agitation. A Pemra order banning anchorpersons from appearing as experts was questioned by some of the government’s own ministers bringing for them a rebuke from Special Adviser to the PM on Information Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan and a warning from Imran Khan to refrain from acting as a part of opposition. There are also reports that the prime minister at one point during the cabinet meeting asked who was making decisions relating to the Pemra notification and the Hamdullah affair. This is something we would all like to know.Meanwhile, different reports are emerging about the degree of PML-N and PPP support for the march. Though both parties had set up separate welcome camps in Lahore on Wednesday morning, there are conflicting reports of how many of their members would join the march and travel with it to Islamabad. The strike announced by traders in all major cities to coincide with the march and protest taxation measures has meanwhile been largely successful with major markets in both Karachi and Lahore closing down for the two-day period. A meeting between a government team and traders had previously failed to reach agreement on the matter. We still do not know how the march will end or what the scenario in Islamabad will be. But certainly, the protest has brought forward a great deal of discussion over matters that include inflation and incompetent management. From government circles there has been criticism against the March for using religion to bring people on to streets. The next few days will determine how things end, but we hope there will be no conflict, and limited disruption of life.

from The News International - Editorial https://ift.tt/2r0SNaf