Protest is a right…. but NOT like this

Posted on December 7, 2007
Filed Under >Owais Mughal, Photo of the Day
324 Comments
Total Views: 60545

Owais Mughal

This photo is from today’s Dawn. It shows protesting lawyers damaging public property in Multan.

The ability to protest against that which they consider unjust is everybody’s right. But there is a fine line between peaceful protest and anarchy. Damaging property is definitely wrong and serves no one’s interest. It certainly does not serve the interest of the lawyers movement for democracy.

Violence is clearly wrong. It becomes no less or no more wrong when it is committed by protesting lawyers than when it is done by government against the same protesting lawyers. Just as we have called out against violence committed against protesters by government agencies, we must also call out aginst violence committed by them.

Anger is neither a strategy nor an excuse. The principle is a clear one: Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it and no matter why.

324 responses to “Protest is a right…. but NOT like this”

  1. Boy Wonder says:

    Sophomore Year said: Karachiites are the only educated tax-paying and law-abiding class of citizens.

    Keep Dreaming…..in Karachi

  2. Rafay Kashmiri says:

    Tributes to those honest militants :
    @ Freedom

    Brand my brow with the seal of freedom
    I am that captivated stallion who, for centuries,
    Has been constrained, without water and greeness in the
    sullen gravity of environments.
    Brand me with the seal of freedom so that your friends,
    from my broiled forhead gather,
    That I have been honoured by being aptivated by newly
    created gods.

    Earlier, your ancestors,
    For the conquest of cities,
    Have made me run in battle fields
    For their lust for throne and sovereignty,
    I have trampled east and west with the tap of my hooves.

    Today, still, I am the old stallion of supeior breed
    Handover my reins to some dictator
    Who may push me in the melting fire and steel
    For multiplying his heaps of gold and silver.

    Yes, I may but tell you a secret
    Shedding the sparks of firm insurrection
    My fellow men are awake with the same tone of feelings,
    No more the cloak of any dictator shall be secure.

    Zaheer Kashmiri

  3. Aqil Sajjad says:

    While I myself disagree with the overall thrust of the article (criticising the lawyers when they turned violant only after having been brutally attacked by the police in that demonstration in Multan), I an in full agreement with Viqar’s above post. The criticism directed at Owais and the website itself has gone way overboard and crossed the limits of fairness. Owais is fully entitled to his opinion and just because some of us disagree with him does not mean we should go to the extent that some of the critics have gone.

  4. Viqar Minai says:

    Owais,
    I think if half the readers accuse you of anti-Musharraf bias and the other half of pro-Musharraf bias, then you must be doing soemthing right.

    There have been enough anti-establishment articles and comments and, in this article also, I do not believe the intent was to vilify the lawyer’s movement as such; only to point out that the upholders of the law should not acts in unlawful and violent way.

    I think many commentators have gone way overboard with their criticism of the post, the website, and Owais himself.

    Take it easy folks … go out and get a breath of fresh air …

  5. Israr says:

    I have to ask this question, how many of the readers here think
    the police car is ” public Property ” ot may be Musharaf Property, Pervaiz Elahi property, benazir property, nawaz sharif property. What public funstion does the police do
    Violence is violence , yes but we are so quick to comment on it, but these are maxims of a society built and run on the basis of rule of Law, when might is right than ” might” is what is needed. Police needs to get the taste, The SSP and IG needs to be beat up too, their kids should be put under house arrest aswell with no reocourse only than will these guys understand the need for Habeous Corpus .

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*