The political chameleon.

Byline: zartaj gul

Despite calls from various quarters for an end to the untimely and unwarranted protests, Fazlur Rehman's motley Opposition March is all set to take place. I personally have no doubts this would be a hotchpotch abortive attempt at causing disruption in public affairs and in providing the arch-enemy India a convenient diversion to build a specious narrative on.

Mounting peaceful protests is an inalienable right of every citizen of the country, but it has become plainly obvious that the due process has not been followed for registering the claimed issues, and this march is just designed to damage the Government's attempts at streamlining the economy, fighting the Kashmir case and building Pakistan's case in FATF. The farcical so-called 'Guard-of-Honor' taken by Fazlur Rehman just over a week ago from his stick-wielding posse, uniformed in the similar colored outfit as the RSS goons, gives a touch of militias that are specifically outlawed by Pakistan's Constitution. More so, in these heady days of our attempts to move Pakistan out of FATF Grey List, Fazlur Rehman is acting most irresponsibly through forming such illegal militias. Not that the Government does not know how to handle these elements: rest assured, they will be dealt with an iron hand if they attempted to cause any havoc during the sit-in. The responsibility thus lies fairly and squarely on the leadership of JUI-F, and also on those of other parties who have taken Fazlur Rehman as their acclaimed leader in this unholy flight from accountability.

After the Faizabad Dharna, Supreme Court made the defining judgment regarding a ban on protesters taking over D-Chowk. Rather other parks can be used for this practice. JUI-F leadership, even here, was hell-bent on flouting the Government's writ, and only through negotiations yielded to have the protest event elsewhere.

This protest is wrong for a raft of reasons. False analogy has been drawn by some elements likening this with the protests mounted by PTI in 2014 against election rigging in the 2013 general elections. We had gone through the whole due process, demanding justice via multiple specific cases in Courts, identifying four constituencies whose results we wanted to be scrutinized as test cases, so that elections in the future could be held more transparently and fairly. We were given no recourse, and all our attempts for over a year to get justice and to enhance the future of the country's electoral system were...