The Lal Masjid standoff is a “calculated attempt” by the government to divert public attention from other issues and to achieve political advantages, said participants of a seminar on ‘Lal Masjid Episode: Lessons and Repercussions.’The Pakistan People’s Party’s Fahatullah Babar and the SAFMA’s Prof Ashfaq Saleem Mirza were the main speakers at the seminar orgainsed by the SDPI on Monday. Babar questioned the timing, manner and changing strategy of the operation against Lal Masjid. The government has staged and “re-engineered” the issue to overshadow important matters and win an international support, which was wearing down, Babar said.
“On the domestic front, it is a skillful effort to divert the public attention from the all parties’ conference, the chief justice’s case and the government’s failure to handle the flood situation and the presidential re-election,” he said.
The PPP leader said the mosque standoff would help lessen the pressure from America and its Western allies, who had demanded that the Pakistani government do more in the ‘war on terror’. Military governments have a tradition of staging such artificial crises to eclipse the main issues, he added. “In 1981, opposition parties joined hands under the umbrella of the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD) against the dictatorship of Ziaul Haq and the Balochistan High Court had admitted a petition challenging the martial law. Lawyers and teachers went on a strike. The MRD set March 2 as the deadline for lifting the press censorship and March 23 for the complete restoration of democracy. But on March 2, a PIA plane was hijacked and all issues were deflated,” Babar said.