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.
Tanweer, isn’t GROUND REALITIES the code word that Gen. Musharraf has been using to justify his own brutality and violence against the lawyers recently?
Ground realities and the background are totlally ignored while writing these articles. Deceiving yourself by saying peaceful protests bring about revolutions is just a delaying tactic. Pakistan is all together different from western countries. I wish if someone had been among them for the last few weeks. The way the lawyers been arrested and tortured in jails was meant for no other purpose than to frighten the fighting lawyers. The miseries and tortures felt by the persons and their families is natural to create an intolerant attitude. I just can say that this (whether right or wrong) is the answer to the attroicites on the humans for the last few weeks.
Again clear enough from this picture, that army and police are good for our own people and real weak people respectively.
LOTA is exactly right. This picture is one more way in which Musharraf is messing with the image of Pakistan. Because of his brutality and human right abuses he has forced the lawyers to take such extreme measures. I wish they had not but because of repeated abuses and brutality by Musharraf and his goons (Thank you ATP for the links you have to the earlier posts with pictures of Musharraf’s police brutality) the patience of the lawyers ran out here.
I will urge all protesters to follow the advice of others on this board and not fall as low as Musharraf, his army and their goons. Democracy zindabad.
this picture further detoriated the image of Pakistan. Jinnah himself was a lawyer he never appreciated any thing against the law.
its simply scandalous behaviour.
Though the picture can’t describe the context around it, yet it is enough to dent the overall peacefull movement of the lawyers fraternity for the restoration of the rule of law in the country. It is also a manifestation of our increasing inclination towards violent activities for getting the things done. This inclination might be one of the repurcussions of a long millitiary hold over the affairs of the state. With a crippled democracy one cannot expect democratic values like patience and consideration for the feelings of others, to flourish. All in all the picture above is enough to malign the very cause of peaceful activism going around the country and project Pakistan with another negative feature.