MULTAN: As the protesting lawyers broke into the session court building and started vandalising the court valuables, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah admitted to government’s total breakdown as a force to establish its writ when he said that the government will try to negotiate with the lawyers and if failed to reach some agreement, ‘someone else’ will be asked to help us reach an agreement.
Talking to a private TV channel today, Rana Sanaullah seemed completely helpless in the wake of the lawyers’ vandalism in Multan session court. The law minister of the country’s largest province said that protesting was the order of the day and thus the lawyers couldn’t be stopped from what they were doing since this has become a norm in Pakistan to get your demands met through such violence.
When asked if he was admitting to the inability of the government to deal with the situation, Rana Sanaullah said that the same ‘failure’ will be considered a success in the evening when the government will be able to make an agreement with these protesting lawyers, agreeing to meet all their demands.
Rana Sanaullah was reminded by the interviewer that he was in government and it was the government’s duty to deal with the situation. Rana Sanaullah calmly responded that all the other segments of the society, including the media and the civil society, always advised the government to give everyone what they want and make agreements with them. “So we will try our best to do an agreement with [lawyers] but if we fail to do so then we’ll ask ‘someone else’ to help us reach an agreement”, he said.
What’s the point of having a government if it can’t establish its writ, the interviewer asked Rana Sanaullah. “Well, if the things continue to go on like this, there will actually be a time in six months that the government will be of no use at all. Because when the societies reach a point where ours is right now, there’s no point of having a government at all”, he replied.
Lawyers on Thursday broke into the session court building in Multan and damaged the property there. The police seemed completely helpless as they were ordered not to use force against the protesters.
Published in Daily Times, December 15th 2017.
