KARACHI: Days after a spate of violent protests that gripped the country for an entire three days, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said on Sunday that the State will not ignore the ‘rebellion’ which took place and caused damage to the public property.
“This is not a religious issue, it is an act of rebellion. No state can ignore rebellion,” Fawad told reporters at a press conference here. “No one should have the impression that the government will forgive this behaviour,” he said, adding that the government will neither turn a blind eye to nor forget the inciting speeches made by religio-political leaders during protests against the acquittal of Asia Bibi last week.”The constitution and law of the State were insulted, this act is hard to forgive,” he added.
The minister said those involved in rioting will be taken to task, adding that the impression that this government is weak will be removed as we take further action.”The way that our people’s property was damaged, the way that judges of the top court, the Pakistan Army and the government were … the kind of speeches that were made, the government will not ignore or forget them,” he asserted.
“Although the issue was resolved via a strategy, we will not forget the people who were involved,” the minister said.”Should the State ignore mutiny? The credibility of a State that ignores rebellion is questionable. The way the constitution, the people, the political leadership, the military and judiciary were held in contempt, it is unlikely that we will forgive it,” he added.
“We’ve seen that being in government has its challenges. Dealing with those challenges is our day-to-day responsibility. There are people who sit outside [the government] who think they can give all the solutions, but the choices that are available to you are not so broad,” he said.
“What was happening was before you: hundreds of people were shutting down streets. The government had two options: we could have used State power, but there was a fear that damage would be incurred, and if that happened, then we would have been criticised and questioned as to why we did it. So we did ‘firefighting’,” the minister said, using a word he employed earlier to refer to damage control.”This doesn’t mean that any Pakistani or the government can approve the conduct that was witnessed here. This was firefighting. We reopened the cities without any damage. But this is not a solution,” he added.
Protests had erupted in several cities after the Supreme Court last week acquitted Asia Bibi, a Christian woman on death row since 2010 after being convicted on blasphemy charges. The protests paralysed routine life in major cities, causing severe road blockages and resulting in mobility issues for the citizens.
Published in Daily Times, November 5th 2018.
