Pakistan has long claimed to be the self-proclaimed “defender of the Muslim Ummah,” repeatedly thumping its chest about solidarity with Palestine and condemning Israeli aggression. Yet, when ordinary citizens attempted to demonstrate that solidarity on the streets of Lahore, they were met not with support, but with batons, arrests, and a chilling show of state repression. The crackdown on a peaceful pro-Palestine rally ordered by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government and executed by General Asim Munir’s military-backed establishment has torn away the mask of hypocrisy that Islamabad has worn for decades.
A Government That Fears Its Own People
The rally in Lahore was not an armed insurgency, nor a violent protest. It was a peaceful demonstration by ordinary citizens, students, activists, and religious groups who came together to express solidarity with the besieged people of Gaza. Yet the government, clearly threatened by the sight of citizens uniting for a cause beyond domestic politics, responded with brute force. Riot police were deployed, protesters were detained, and slogans for Palestinian liberation were met with lathi charges and tear gas.
Such authoritarian overreach exposes a deep insecurity within Pakistan’s power structure. The Sharif government already struggling with economic collapse and political legitimacy seems more terrified of its own citizens exercising their constitutional right to protest than of Israel’s war crimes. It is a textbook tactic of weak governments: crush public dissent at home while issuing hollow condemnations abroad.
Perhaps the most glaring hypocrisy lies with Pakistan’s military establishment. For decades, the Army has portrayed itself as the “guardian” of the Islamic world, a bastion of resistance against Western imperialism. Yet when its own people rallied for a cause the Army claims to champion, it unleashed state violence instead.
General Asim Munir’s silence on the crackdown speaks volumes. It confirms what critics have long argued: that the Pakistan Army’s support for Palestine is nothing more than performative rhetoric a convenient foreign policy slogan to distract from its undemocratic control at home. The same establishment that issues fiery speeches at the United Nations about Palestinian rights cannot tolerate peaceful solidarity marches on its own soil.
There is another, more cynical explanation behind the crackdown. In recent months, Pakistan’s leadership has been quietly seeking rapprochement with the United States and Gulf monarchies many of whom are either aligned with Israel or have normalized relations with it. Pakistan’s newfound pragmatism appears to prioritize aid packages, IMF loans, and military deals over the moral imperative of supporting an oppressed people.
By silencing pro-Palestine voices, Islamabad signals to Washington and Riyadh that it is “responsible” and “controllable.” In other words, the crackdown is not just an attack on free speech it is a message to foreign capitals that Pakistan will no longer let its streets dictate its foreign policy.
A Betrayal of the People and of Palestine
The most tragic aspect of this episode is the betrayal it represents not just of Pakistan’s own citizens, but of the Palestinian people themselves. For decades, Palestinians have looked to the Muslim world for solidarity. When even peaceful rallies in one of the Muslim world’s largest countries are crushed, it sends a demoralizing message: that slogans of “brotherhood” and “solidarity” are mere words, easily discarded when they clash with state interests.
The crackdown in Lahore is more than an isolated incident. It is a mirror reflecting the deep moral bankruptcy of Pakistan’s ruling elite a clique that weaponizes religion and resistance rhetoric for domestic consumption, but abandons both when power and profit are at stake.
The baton charges in Lahore may disperse the crowds, but they cannot silence the truth. Pakistanis are awakening to the reality that their government and military care little about justice in Palestine or at home. They will remember who stood with the oppressed and who ordered their arrest. And history will not be kind to those who chose cowardice and hypocrisy over courage and conviction.
If Pakistan truly wishes to stand with Palestine, it must start by respecting those within its own borders who dare to speak out for Gaza. Until then, its words of solidarity will remain empty and its silence in the face of injustice will echo louder than any speech at the UN.
(The Author is the National Chairman of Muslim Students Organisation of India MSO, he writes on a wide range of issues, including, Sufism, Public Policy, Geopolitics and Information Warfare.)
