At times, it seems that the PTI’s support to Ch Pervez Elahi and his PML(Q) was solely so that it could slake its vengeance for the PML(N)’s crackdown on PTI leaders on June 25, when they tried to take crowds out of Lahore. One of the signs of this has been the large number of SHOs who have been transferred for the ‘crime’ of stopping (with force, sometimes but not always excessive) PTI protesters from going to Islamabad. One of the more egregious applications of force has been the placing of notices on the residence of then Home Minister Ataullah Tarar. Mr Tarar has subsequently said that the notice had been pasted on a house from which he had moved a long time ago.
Is there any attempt to conceal, by this flurry of activity, any sins of omission by PTI leaders based in Lahore? Apart from that, the message to the police is unfortunate, and the PTI-PML(Q) coalition would have done well to avoid it. It is a fixed principle of administration that all previous actions are past and closed transactions, and those who have obeyed orders are not punished or otherwise penalized for having done so. The Punjab coalition will find that it will only be able to issue orders that pass all legal tests, or else it will run the risk of being disobeyed. Even then, in the present situation, policemen are being penalized for obeying what may well have been legal orders. In short, policemen are being asked to act as PTI workers. That is a risky thing to do, especially when the CM, the true fount of the police’s authority, belongs to the PML(Q).
The circle of vengeance seems impossible to break out of. The PTI might be bent on taking vengeance for June 25, but the picking up of PTI chief Imran Khan’s chief of staff Shahbaz Gill, also seems to contain an element of retaliation. The only way of eliminating the federal-provincial rivalry seems to be a fresh election, when party affiliation, if nothing else, will determine the pattern of arrests.
