Sohail Afridi in the Dock? |
Asif Mahmood
The latest development is that the Punjab Forensic Science Laboratory has completed its verification report on video footage related to the May 9 incidents in Peshawar. The report confirms that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi, along with Kamran Bangash, Taimur Jhagra, and Irfan Saleem, are among the individuals visible in the videos. This raises a fundamental question for Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf. What has its strategy, so far, actually delivered for the party.
PTI cannot move forward without exiting the whirlpool of May 9. Without shedding this burden, progress appears impossible. From the very first day, it was evident that what happened on May 9 was not politics. It was a grave and serious matter. The party leadership was given an opportunity the very next day in the Supreme Court when the Chief Justice himself allowed them to condemn the events. Had Imran Khan done so at that moment, the already tangled situation might not have worsened. But that did not happen. Instead, evasion followed, aided by the familiar force of post truth narratives. Claims were made that we were not there, that we had nothing to do with it. This was never going to be resolved so easily, a reality the PTI leadership failed to grasp. The burden remains on its shoulders, and as a result, national politics remains stuck in a vortex.
No major incident occurs in isolation. There is always a chain, a sequence, with each link connected to the next. May 9 was no exception. There were those who physically attacked and burned memorials of martyrs, and there were those who planned it. The striking similarity in the nature of the violence across different cities is itself telling. This was not a spontaneous emotional reaction. It was a premeditated plan whose final stage unfolded on May 9. Before that day, a narrative of hatred was carefully constructed. Hostility against state institutions was pushed to such an extreme that incidents of this nature became almost inevitable.
Everyone played a role. Some produced poisonous rhetoric. Some led the crowds. Some facilitated the protesters to reach sensitive locations. Some fueled the fire on social media. Others moved around in luxury vehicles, flashing victory signs and performing leadership roles. There is no escape from responsibility. What happened that day was witnessed by all. Rallies and marches have their own psychology. Provoking them is not difficult. Emotions, not reason, dominate such spaces. It is also not necessary that every individual present shares the same criminal intent or is fully aware of what is about to happen. In such circumstances, the greater and real responsibility lies with the decision makers. Here, the decision makers lit the fire. Some stood alongside them.........