SUMMARY of the Article “Street Protests,” Dawn, August 20th, 2024

Street protests have proven to be a powerful tool for toppling hated regimes, as witnessed recently in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, which has left many Pakistanis wondering why similar actions haven’t yielded the same results in their country. Historically, Pakistan was one of the first regional states to achieve regime change through protests, toppling Ayub Khan in 1969 and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1977, while protests also weakened Ziaul Haq and Pervez Musharraf. Globally, street protests have become a prominent method of opposing regimes, with the Carnegie Global Protest Tracker recording over 700 protests in 147 states since 2017. However, only about a third of these protests led to policy or regime changes, and less than 10 succeeded in toppling regimes. Iconic revolutions, such as those in Russia, France, and China, not only overthrew autocratic regimes but also resulted in significant ideological shifts and the collapse of the old military-backed autocracy. In contrast, many modern protests, even those that topple regimes, fail to achieve lasting change or good governance, as seen in the aftermath of the Arab Spring and Iran’s revolution. Effective governance requires sustained social or political movements with clear, egalitarian agendas. The challenge for Bangladesh’s students, who have protested against Prime Minister Hasina Wajed’s regime, lies in transforming their initial focus on job quotas into a broader and more effective political vision. Pakistan’s inability to replicate such protests is attributed to fatigue from » Read More…