Team News Riveting
The human rights activists hyper active in India have a case to study in Pakistan—the Imran Khan government fired tear gas shells on its own population just to verify the usability of the shells.
At least 2,000 government employees had gathered and planned to march towards Parliament House when the police fired tear gas to stop them. They were demanding a hike in their salaries.
The peaceful protests, which are the hallmark of every bustling democracy, was however handled in a dictatorial manner by the authorities with the military the real power centre. The police fired 1000 tear gas shells at its protesting employees just to ‘test it.’
In fact, the country’s Interior Minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed even attempted to justify the shelling with some insensitive remarks.
Asked upon why the government decided to shell its own citizens, Ahmed stated that is, “necessary to test the tear gas as it had been unused for a long time.” He said that Islamabad Police only “fired a little tear gas”, as the canisters were unused since long and it was important to test them.
The protesters, under the umbrella of All Government Employees Grand Alliance, were demanding a hike in salaries in light of the rapidly rising inflation in the country and hence, the public servants had announced a sit-in at Pakistan Secretariat. The protests appeared to have reached its climax after a government committee agreed to increase the basic pay of federal government employees from grades 1 to 19 by 25 per cent.
The Imran Khan government which is already under increasing pressure from a united opposition which is baying for Khan’s blood came under heavy fire from the opposition camp.
PML-N leader Mohammad Zubair, said, “In any other country, a statement like this would mean the immediate firing of the minister and an apology from the government.”
Interestingly, the custodian of human rights globally is mum on the issue. Pakistan had been shedding crocodile tears for Kashmiri in the pretext of human rights while at home, testing arms and ammunition on its own population. The rights activists hyper active in India should react to the development taking place in the neighbouring country.
