Dr. Hasan Askari Rizvi | 30th Oct, 2016
The decisive confrontation between the PML-N and the PTI has started. The federal and Punjab governments did not wait for November 2 when the PTI wanted to demonstrate its strength in Islamabad. They started employing the administrative and coercive apparatus of the state on October 27 to preempt any concentration of the supporters and activists of the PTI and its allies in Islamabad or elsewhere. The government’s use of force to quell the planned agitation is based on the assumption is that the PTI activists are easy going and fun-loving people who treat political protest as a “party-like” activity. The government strategists think that if the PTI activists are subjected to violence and arrest they will be discouraged from coming out for political protest. Therefore, the federal and Punjab governments displayed the coercive apparatus of the state in the form of baton-charge, use of tear gas and arrests to dissuade the activists.
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