The atmosphere was charged in Peshawar this week as thousands of Pashtun men and women took to the streets to make fun of a sit-in to block American supplies going to Afghanistan.  
Residents of the troubled capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa expressed amusement after reports in the media that a local youth had refused to see the irony in Tehrik-e-Insaf and its allies protesting against the provincial government of Tehrik-e-Insaf and its allies, and condemning the US for violating Pakistan’s sovereignty with a drone attack that killed several Afghans who were violating Pakistan’s sovereignty.
The boy later issued an apology to the media. “I had mistakenly assumed my party’s anti-America slogans were pro-Pakistan,” he said in a press release.
Members of the civil society gathered in downtown Peshawar to hold a candlelight vigil to express support with the truck drivers who were beaten up during the sit-in. “NATO suppliers do not travel on weekends, so the protesters were waiting for my truck like Pakistani people have been waiting for the unblocking of YouTube,” said one driver who survived the sit-in. “They began shouting slogans as soon as they saw my vehicle. Then some of them held me by the collar and dragged my sovereignty out of the truck. Many of them were carrying bats, with which they spanked my sovereignty.”
“They are driven by a passion to protect Pakistan,” one analyst said, “but are expressing it in a way that shows that they are not fit to fulfill this passion by joining the military.”
“They are driven by a passion to change history,” another expert said, “and several thousands of them are working on that, editing Wikipedia as we speak.”
A young Tehrik-e-Insaf worker disagreed. “How will we learn to fight the enemy until we learn to fight each other?”
The series of blockades began with a public meeting in which Tehrik-e-Insaf chairman Imran Khan urged workers to rise against the pro-US policies of Tehrik-e-Insaf, which has allowed US supplies to reach Afghanistan in exchange for aid projects in the province. The provincial government has demanded an apology from the US for a drone attack, which it says must be delivered formally with the next batch of aid checks.
There were no officials of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on the stage with Imran Khan. He was flanked by several landlords from Punjab and former Pervez Musharraf ally Sheikh Rasheed.  
“We haven’t seen so many Punjabis descend on Peshawar since the Battle of Nowshera in 1823,” an eyewitness exclaimed. “Imran Khan is like Ranjit Singh – he came from Lahore, has a big ego, and is supported by bearded men who will leave Peshawar in ruins.”
Imran is a strong supporter of talks with the Taliban. Unfortunately, he has not extended the same offer to the workers of his party. Tehrik-e-Insaf says key intellectuals and opinion makers in the West agree with its stance on the war on terror. Key intellectuals and opinion makers in the West have denied the allegation.
Imran Khan had urged the workers of his party to forcibly block the routes on which trucks carry supplies to American and other troops in Afghanistan. But despite hours of negotiations in the bathroom of his farmhouse in Islamabad, he was unable to persuade Imran Khan to join the sit-in. The latter had to limit his presence to the public meeting.
Speaking to the rally, popular politician Sheikh Rasheed condemned the former military dictator Pervez Musharraf for allowing drone attacks and his information minister Sheikh Rasheed for failing to condemn any of the attacks that were made during his term in office.
Notorious for spraying saliva while speaking, Shah Mehmood Qureshi blamed the outgoing PPP government and its foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi for tacitly allowing the US to carry out drone attacks while condemning them publicly.
Jamaat-e-Islami leaders also spoke to the rally, asking the people to throw out the people who had been supporting the US in an endless war that ruined Pakistan in exchange for dollars. The protestors reacted positively to their appeal, and threw them out of the venue.
“Attendance at the rally was amazing,” said one visitor. “People were so full of national zeal and fervor that apparently each one of them had bought five or six seats.”

The author has a degree in Poetics of Prophetic Discourse and works as a Senior Paradigm Officer.

harris@nyu.edu
 @cyborgasms