As Pakistan steps into its second week of protests under the leaderships of Imran Khan and Tahir-ul-Qadri in what is portrayed as the besieged capital, Islamabad, many patriotic fans of both have compared the ‘Azaadi dharna’ to the likes of Tahrir Square’s protests commenced on the 25th January, 2011, in which the Egyptian population took to the streets of Cairo in thousands to topple the 31 year old dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak.
The numerical value of ’31 years’ itself suggests that Islamabad’s ‘Azaadi Square’ isn’t of the same nature at all. Tahrir has now become a symbol or even a brand for revolutions which mass protests around the world, feel the need to associate with. Egypt, a country in the hands of the military since Nasser’s revolution of 1953, in which he successfully toppled the then Monarchy of King Faruk, narrates a completely different history to that of Pakistan’s. The Azaadi march for Pakistan this time round, despite many critics equating the Shareef regime as dictatorial, is against a regime that sought democratic transition of power after winning a majority. The second difference maintains that Egyptians flowed to Tahrir as a combined unit against the regime in power, off their own accord and not behind a leader. On many accounts it was rendered as a leaderless revolution, although it was hijacked by many political opportunists who organized themselves in to political parties, later. Pakistan’s so called ‘Azaadi square’ having the exact same meaning as ‘Tahrir’, however worked in the opposite direction when purposes of the two are put under closer scrutiny.
Masses gathering behind a political party in Pakistan dictating anecdotes of change that are in all honesty, feasible given the current state of the country; are being mobilized by leaders and are most likely blinded by the aspect that these political parties, despite demanding change on the surface, have a politically-drawn motive of self-interest behind their game; that of a power-grabbing struggle. Again, having a striking difference between the first round of the Tahrir square gatherings of 2011. Historically, Pakistan has seen mass-protests in the form of Tahrir’s likening during the revolution that ousted Pakistan’s first military dictator Ayoub Khan out and second, when a repeat of events occurred during the ousting of Musharraf as well. Ayub’s time generated masses of students, trade unions, worker unions and the more leftist side of society. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto then cashed on this opportunity and rose to power democratically. However, the mass movement during Musharraf’s time was instigated through one of the largest lawyer movements of Pakistan. The fervor in the people was similar to that of Tahrir Square’s as it was taking down another dictator and although hijacked by the political parties that once held heavy charges and were in exile, it was still successful in mounting pressure on the President to resign. As was the case of Tahrir Square, which led to Mubarak stepping down.
However, some similarities can be drawn in both the squares. They both saw mass protests- revolutionary in nature- against the ruling regime for the atrocities the regimes had or have put the people through. Second, the security forces deployed by the government to handle the crowd played an ambiguous role at the start. Even though the army and the police asserted a brutal crackdown on the Tahrir protesters, it later sided with the people and joined the crowds. In the case of the Azaadi Square, many supporters have seen the police taking the same role. Speculations drawn, have stated that the police is either highly tired of the fiasco that is going on in Islamabad or they are now siding the public as their credibility took a blow during the Model Town incident where they open fired on protesters resulting in the deaths of many and as a result have turned away from a government giving such orders.
The results of the so-called ‘Azaadi Square’ are still unknown and the political parties now demanding a resignation of the prime minister, have found themselves to be in a political deadlock. Only time will tell on whether the results of the Azaadi Square are parallel to that of Tahrir’s.
No comments:
Post a Comment