It is not win-win end

A win-win situation holds positive aspects for either side. 

The culmination of the countrywide protests at the call of the Tahreek Labaik Ya Rasool Allah, led by firebrand orator Khadim Hussain Rizvi, has exposed the government’s weak writ to counter the crisis and the elements spreading extremism and using religion as a tool for political gains. 

The charged workers at Faizabad interchange. 

After three weeks of putting up a firm resolve, which turned out to be fake, not to succumb to protesters’ demand of sending the law minister home, the government finally launched an operation, and that too on the court instruction, which ended up declaring the protesters' victors. Shame.

The three-week-long besiege of the federal capital ended after the law minister, Zahid Hamid, resigned, and that was the main demand of the protesters. 

The mob wanted to make him an example of a minister who allegedly tried to reword a voter's oath to the finality of Prophethood in the electoral bill. 

Though the government was quick to fix the wording, which according to the officials was a clerical error, the clerics were not impressed. The government initially stood firm, refusing to accept their demand of sacking the minister, saying that it would be tantamount to setting a dangerous trend. The government did not want to escalate the situation and wanted to wait for the moment until the protesters showed the signs of weariness. 

At least this strategy had worked well in the previous sit-ins of Tahirul Qadri in 2012 and Imran Khan in 2014. That never happened in this case as the court jumped in and the rest is history.

 The sit-in and its aftermaths offer an opportunity for soul-searching on some issues. Every issue involving an iota of blasphemy is becoming life-risking phenomena in Pakistan. It did not happen overnight. Years of cultivation of religious elements by the establishment, read army and judiciary, has made them so powerful that they not only dictate the internal matters but also the foreign policies. Because of such elements, Pakistan is often dubbed as a hostile state. Most of the terror attacks around the world have been linked with the country. Years of mentoring of a particular sect in the Afghan jihad, and another secular in Kashmir jihad, left the third sect to assert its power by playing with the emotions of the people on the issue of love for the last prophet of Allah, Hazrat Muhammad (peace be upon him). Of course, every Muslim and every human, regardless of religion, loves the prophet as a matter of faith and for their services for humanity. When any issue affiliated with the Holy Prophet (PBUH) is used for political gains, and to risk people’s life and property, that is not only unfair but also against the true teaching of Islam as well. We have seen the trails of death and destruction in riots erupted in protests against Dutch caricatures back in 2005. Since then, nothing was planned to change the people’s mindset.

 Still, it is not late to start working on a plan directing the people to follow the teachings of Islam and other religions that all preach tolerance, peace, love for humanity, humility and so on.