The
Supreme Court's verdict on Asia Bibi case triggered countrywide protests. All major roads are blocked, mobs violence is in full swing, schools and colleges were closed,
section 144 has been imposed, people are trapped inside their houses and protesters have vowed to fight till the decision is overturned by the court. To put it more precisely, yet again, the country has been paralyzed by a "small" section of society. Firebrand speaker,
Mulana Khadim Hussain Rizvi, did not spare anyone this time around. He openly abused the judges, who were on the bench, and urged their drivers to kill them ; protesters crossed the red line by hurling accusations against the army, a few even raised questions about the A
rmy Chief's faith. More alarming was the courage of a cleric, who asked other generals to rebel against the army chief for maintaining silence on the issue. The prime minister issued a warning to the demonstrators to mend their ways or be ready to face a punitive state response .On the whole, the situation is grave and tense. To watch the complete video of the
Mulana Sahib inciting his fanatics against the judges, the army chief and the prime minister, click at the link below:
https://web.facebook.com/100000746577942/videos/2196904233677774/.
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| protests in Karachi |
This is not the first time that religious parties are demonstrating their street power. About a month ago, when the government had decided to include,
Atif Mian, an Ahmadi by faith, in the Economic Advisory Council, the similar kind of mob violence and protests brought the government to its knees and eventually it had to back down from its decision. Atif Mian was asked to step down. And it would be difficult to omit details about how
Mr. Khadim hussain Rizvi was catapulted to popularity. During the tenure of the last government, someone unidentified individual--mistakenly or intentionally-- tempered with the official oath-taking document that, according to clergy, was a deliberate attempt to damage faith of believers on finality of the prophet Muhammad (Saw).
Khadim Hussain Rizvi spearheaded the countrywide wave of protests to demand that the government must uncover the individual behind the conspiracy and the minister of law should be asked to resign. In a matter of a few days, he, successfully, put the government under pressure and forced it to fulfill the demands. The outspoken religious figure became a famous personality. That incident gave rise to a custom of mob-violence. After that we have seen doctors, nurses, press club officials, lawyers and many other sections launching demonstration and mob-violence to get their demands fulfilled by governments in power.
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| Khadim Hussain Rizvi |
Impetus to vigilante is always provided by some state actors--opposition parties, intelligence agencies and the army(allegedly). When had launched the protest against the PMLN government, the Pakistan Tehrik e Insaf, the Pakistan Peoples Party and other religious parties were exploiting the protests to gain political mileage. Not only the political parties, a few other actors were also endorsing the violent protesters unmindful of the fact that they were feeding the Frankenstein's monster. Last time, it was Director-General of Punjab Rangers Maj-Gen Azhar Navid Hayat's turn to distribute Rs1000 cheques among protesters for challenging the government's writ. Who is up for the job this time around? , the PMLN leadership seems to be the potential candidate, if not anyone else.
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