Iqbal Khan
Sit-in is probably one of the oldest ways of registering protest. Structurally, it is weak gathering and is closer to mob. Permeation of third party in sit-in crowd is a common feature. Hence, it is difficult to control. Successful employment of sit-in requires mature leadership and motivated activists to keep it on course. Otherwise it could go berserk on instant’s provocation of leadership and or activists.
Various interest and pressure groups, advocacy entities and trade unions follow this strategy to create instant pressure spikes for achieving quick results. Political parties performing the role of opposition also use it to short-circuit usual democratic channels on the pretext that such channels have lost credibility. Interestingly, none of the sit-ins in Pakistan could sustain itself to the point of achieving the stated objectives. They usually fizzled out without any worthwhile tangible achievement. However, some of these have had far reaching intangible implications in terms of disturbing some of the constitutional provisions related to checks and balances.
In the era of far right politics free and fair elections have become a fallacy and foreign influence in electoral processes is emerging as a new normal. Russian interference in 2016 elections of the US and Indian influence in smaller countries of SAARC is an all too known a reality. The US and some other countries also employ forced “Regime Change” as foreign policy instrument.
Rumours are making rounds about permeation of foreign influence in Pakistani politics via participation in 2019 edition of the ongoing sit-in. Another uniqueness of this sit-in is participation of disproportionate number of under-age boys who are not yet entitled to take part in politics. Constitution grants voting rights to the persons of the age of eighteen years and above. Likewise, according to constitution of Pakistan, foreigners are not permitted to take part in the politics of Pakistan.
Participation of under age or say the school age boys has serious repercussions. Firstly such activities diverts their focus away from studies; secondly, due to their lack of requisite exposure to politics they may be easily swayed to an undesired direction without really understanding the implications and consequences.
As regards participation of foreigners, the cost of giving levers of controlling our political dynamics are very well known at all levels, and hence needs no emphasis. There is need to erect fool proof checks to weed out presence of such people.
The issue in not mammoth in nature and incorporation of small procedures in relevant laws would suffice. Say for example, person or organization seeking the permission for any such assembly should provide the CNIC numbers of the persons attending the political assembly, and participants would be under obligation to produce CNIC while attending the event and produce it on demand. That is just a single procedure would resolve these issues to a great extent.
Ongoing sit-in appears to be violating the constitutional obligations, at least on these two accounts. In the age of fake and deep fake news, it is difficult to be sure of these facts, but even if it is just a perception, immediate attention is warranted at national leadership level. It would be worthwhile for the parliament to laydown rules of business for such sit-in events whereby the organisers of such event should be required to ensure that no foreigners and underage boys participate in these political activities. Such undertaking should be part of the other submissions made to the relevant district authorities where such event is to take place.
If parliament fails to stand up to the occasion, the superior judiciary may be moved for seeking guidance on these important factors affecting the environment and contour of national political landscape. Moreover, national political leadership could also take the initiative on the forum of All Parties Conference to formulate a voluntary code of conduct in this regard.
Prolonged sit-ins are not a very good way of sounding political differences. These cause a semblance of paralysis in the country and ooze an aroma of uncertainty and insecurity, life comes to a standstill in the vicinity of such gathering causing hardship to those living in the general area of such happening. Duration of these gatherings need to be specified by the law.
The execution mechanism of sit-ins by various organizations needs to be reduced to writing to ensure that such activities do not degenerate into law and order episode and do not cause hardship to the public at large. The objectives of these sittings should also be legal, and it should be regarded as an extreme step to which individuals or organizations should resort to once all legal ways for redressal of grievances have been exhausted. Various models of protest are in vogue in all decent democracies, one could learn from international best practices and regulate the conduct of such activities in Pakistan.
Rise of far right thought to political power, the World over, has given credence to the viability of sit-ins as a short cut to success. Erstwhile Arab spring owes a lot to the stamina of protestors to keep stations for long durations even under harsh climatic conditions. Series of coloured revolutions is another success story of such type of protests. However, in Pakistan, no sit-in has ever achieved its objectives spontaneously. From another perspective, one could say that none of sit-ins in Pakistan could sustain itself till achievement of stated objectives. Anyway, looking for instantaneous results is not a decent way of protest, rather it represents an extremist look-out. Sustainable results only come through a negotiated dialogue. Sit-in weaken the governments and its power to govern gets dissipated, such loss cannot be easily made-up. It also disturbs the constitutional system of checks and balances, some institutions become weaker while some emerge disproportionately stronger after politically motivated sit-ins. Such fluxes of power have serious and far reaching implications with regard to overall stability of a typical democratic setup.
An introspection is long overdue to ascertain the viability of sit-ins as a tool for seeking policy changes in the presence of numerous other decent channels afforded by an average democracy.
