Violence has since long been a part and parcel of the politics in Pakistan, however, it is quite regrettable that the religion, which teaches peace, tolerance, brotherhood and interfaith harmony, has now become a new fault line of domestic politics in our country. The assassination attack on interior minister Professor Ahsan Iqbal during a public rally at Narowal, a day before yesterday, is a testimony to the fact that religion is ruthlessly used as a tool for the sake of petty political gains. According to preliminary reports, a suspect who was arrested on the spot for the assassination attempt on Interior Minister on Sunday evening is believed to be affiliated with a recently founded politico-religious party.
The report sent to the Punjab chief secretary hours after the attack, the Narowal deputy commissioner had reported that the suspect had identified himself as Abid Hussain, son of Mohammad Hussain, a resident of Verum village, Tehsil Shakargarh of Narowal district. “He further showed his affiliation with Tahrik-e-Labbaik”, the DC’s letter read. Although the TLP leadership while condemning the attack had termed it a pre-election conspiracy. Demanding a judicial inquiry into the attack they said that TLP is a peaceful religio-political party that believes in change through political struggle and democratic processes.
The leader of the House in the Senate, Raja Zafarul Haq, described the assassination attempt on Ahsan Iqbal as a “failed attempt to restrict political activity”. “The culture of intolerance in this country must be discouraged,” he asserted. “Extremism should not harm the political process, and all schools of thought must come together to condemn these acts of terror.”
As the investigations are going on it would be premature to say anything about the reasons behind the assassination attack, however, the incident had set many tongues wagging, as the ruling party claims it an attempt to restrict its activities, while others call it a conspiracy intended to defer polls scheduled to be held somewhere in the mid of July. But it is for sure that the radicalism and intolerance is growing in the society and spreading its roots in different parts of the country. There are many factors involved in it but the mainstream political parties too can’t absolve themselves from any liability or blame in this matter. Concerted efforts are needed to curb this culture of intolerance.
Since the entire nation is strongly opposed to violence and violent politics there is need that all political parties must come forward with a positive state of mind and evolve a joint mechanism so that such kind of dastardly incidents having potential to derail elections do not recur again.
