Civil Disobedience: Unworkable: IA Hashmi

Recent statement released on social media two days ago, has surprised even most of his own party leaders by threatening to launch a nationwide civil disobedience movement from December 14 if the government crackdown on his supporters during the November 26 protest is not investigated by a court and the workers are not released, as this experiment failed miserably during the more than four-month-long sit-in to topple the then government ten years ago. However, the statement also announced the formation of a five-member committee to negotiate with “stakeholders,” but it is not clear what “stakeholders” mean. According to sources, Imran Khan’s latest call for civil disobedience is not feasible for most of the party’s leaders. Most of the leaders have expressed their opinion in their internal WhatsApp group that civil disobedience is neither feasible nor the right time for it. According to PTI sources, the call for civil disobedience reached even the highest leaders including party chairman Barrister Gauhar Ali Khan, Secretary General Salman Akram Raja, Ali Amin Gandapur and Asad Qaiser through Imran Khan’s post on X. According to a leader, neither overseas Pakistanis will stop sending money to their families nor will people be able to stop paying electricity and gas bills, even PTI leaders will not be able to do this because participating in civil disobedience as MPs will disqualify them. A leader said that whoever is giving such advice to Imran Khan is harming the party and its founder. It should be noted that on November 24, Imran Khan also gave the “final call” of the protest without consulting the party leadership, which angered several senior PTI leaders and they wanted to meet Imran Khan and review the decision, but this could not happen because the authorities did not allow them to meet the jailed leader. When contacted in this regard, senior PTI leader Ali Muhammad Khan said that the party leadership will meet the founding chairman to seek further instructions, while in the meantime, the committee formed by Imran Khan will start doing its work. In fact, meaningful and constructive negotiations are the only way to save the PTI itself and the entire nation from the political chaos and turmoil, a large part of which is due to the hasty decisions and actions of the founding PTI itself. During his three-and-a-half-year government, he rejected every offer of cooperation from the opposition with utter contempt and when his government ended under the constitutional method of a no-confidence motion, instead of sitting on the opposition benches, adopting a democratic attitude. He decided to launch a protest movement and ordered his members to resign from the National Assembly. When the protest movement proved fruitless, he dissolved the two provincial assemblies and ended his party's government in Punjab and KP. He took the completely unwise step of attacking Islamabad to prevent the appointment of the current army chief. From the riots in Nomai and the subsequent situation to the final call on November 24 without consulting his colleagues, all his decisions have only increased his problems. In this context, at least now the way forward for the entire country and the PTI itself is to seek a national dialogue with a powerful political leadership.Constructive dialogue should be initiated in accordance with the requirements of mutual interest and a consensus should be found to resolve the differences that would prove to be a source of lasting stability in the country.