Islamabad’s claim to not having experienced a surge of political unrest swaying its foundations has finally fallen flat. Though the turmoil was defeated, the credit did not go to negotiations, which are otherwise considered the essence of democracy. Instead, the guns ruled over Islamabad.

In the 1990s, to be heard, the late Qazi Hussain Ahmad of Jamaat-e-Islami used to threaten Islamabad with a million marchers capable of trampling the corridors of power. He would hold rallies in Rawalpindi. The sheer strength of the rallies kept succumbing Islamabad to his demands. Nevertheless, the gimmickry worked wonders to the extent that it caught the attention of those who wanted to regulate Islamabad from the outside. The threat of inundation provided a necessary handle to open and close Islamabad’s doors.

The year 2014 surpassed the era of the 1990s. It underlined the significance of subduing D-Chowk to the will of populism: Islamabad does not heed grievances unless D-Chowk is occupied. It was the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), along with a religious party, which set the tone. Now, after a decade, in 2024, Islamabad finds itself at the mercy of marchers who want to be heard. A few days ago, PTI workers once again made an attempt, without realising that Islamabad’s threshold for hearing grievances had risen since 2014. Nevertheless, to maintain this high threshold, unlike in the past, this time Islamabad had to rely on guns that fired bullets—whether straight, impairing shots or aerial warning shots. The occasion was created by shutting off electricity, leaving no witnesses behind.

Anyone obsessed with the past seems oblivious to the current governing principle: undo what you did. The political system is currently undergoing the ordeal of being undone—an attempt to return the country to the pre-2014 era. Interestingly, the responsibility for this reversion does not lie with the ruling political dispensation, though they are beneficiaries, but with those who clandestinely incited the PTI-led political upheaval in 2014.

Licking its wounds, the PTI may now realise the tyranny of the governing principle. If anyone is unsure, they should ask Tayyaba Raja, who was dragged by a male police constable holding her hair publicly in Lahore in May 2023. She was introduced to the principle the hard way. That single act by the constable heralded not only the death of Asian norms, social morality, and human dignity in one go but also the accentuation of the governing principle, which has been non-sparing even of children—not to mention women.

The idea supporting the governing principle is that the country’s economy has been drained. Economic gains are not possible without achieving political stability, as was the case in the pre-2014 era. This idea keeps the ruling political government insensitive to the plight of PTI workers, who raise voices about being handled brutally. Pakistan first paid the cost of doing and is now paying the cost of undoing. Interestingly, Pakistan is ready to sell its national assets, such as the national airline (PIA), but it is not ready to slash its non-developmental expenditures. These constants bolster the governing principle.

The question is this: is it possible to reverse the wheel of time? One school of thought considers it possible, while the other deems it impossible.

The main challengers to the governing principle are mostly the youth, who think Pakistan can run according to their aspirations. Belonging to the second school of thought, they are ignorant of the fact that the whole system is a corollary of the colonial order meant for controlling subjects, not liberating them. Nevertheless, the challenge transcends the youth. It is connectivity with the world that makes the youth compare their country with others. The same connectivity has exposed Pakistan’s rules and regulations as archaic, reviled by the youth.

The youth demand liberty and rights as guaranteed by the constitution. This is why efforts have been made to control lines of communication such as the internet and its products, like social media, meant for connectivity. Interestingly, social media is now a battleground for fighting battles and winning wars. Pakistan has even seen the bifurcation of Virtual Private Network (VPN) facilities into ‘good VPN’ and ‘bad VPN’. By the way, hardly had Pakistan emerged from its obsession with ‘good Taliban’ when the country found itself embracing ‘good VPNs’.

The latest victim of the governing principle is the renowned journalist Matiullah Jan, who believed his journalistic duty was to reveal the truth. He was on a self-imposed fact-finding mission to the mortuary of a government-run hospital in Islamabad. He was attempting to determine how many PTI workers had lost their lives to the governing principle in the recent mayhem in Islamabad. He overlooked the fact that if the governing principle could silence the judiciary, he stood no chance of being loquacious and raucous.

Though the guns have ruled over Islamabad, it is not expected that the notion, “when people enjoy liberty, they tend not to lose it,” will die a natural death. The ten years from 2014 to 2024 have significantly changed people. Though the governing principle has spoken through the guns, what lies ahead?

A better strategy would be to acknowledge the reality that the wheel of time cannot be turned back. Furthermore, the economy should be managed by reducing non-developmental expenditures rather than suppressing voices of political dissent. Along with this, an early announcement of a general election date would be preferable to being engulfed by the costs of the governing principle.

Dr Qaisar Rashid
The writer is a freelance columnist. He can be reached at qaisarrashid@yahoo.com