Some more and some less, the fact remains that almost all the parties with stakes in the upcoming election have come under attacks launched by the anti-democratic forces. And the incidence of violence against the parties' rallies and leaders is increasing by the day as May 11 draws near. On Tuesday, as the campaign convoy of Balochistan PML (N) chief Sardar Sanaullah Zehri came under a murderous bomb attack in Khuzdar, a suicide bomber struck an ANP election rally in Peshawar, in addition to two more incidents of relatively minor intensity.
Last week, it was the MQM candidate for National Assembly and Sindh Assembly killed in Hyderabad. And the killers too of assorted brands; the MQM leader was killed by motorcycle-riding Taliban militants while the attack on the PML (N) convoy has been claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA). Of course being in the forefront of the war against anti-democracy forces in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, where the battle between the two sides is the hardest, the ANP is under continuous attack and has lost hundreds of workers and leaders over the last few years. Not a day passes when militants spare the ANP workers and leaders, a vulnerability all the more accentuated since the induction of caretaker set-up in the province which withdrew security available to a beleaguered ANP. As if the bloody encounters with the Taliban militants are not enough of a predicament for it, the ANP leadership is also troubled with the feeling as if it is alone in its costly defence of democracy. It's your issue and the Taliban are your demons, the leaders of the other parties seem to be conveying to the ANP. Over the last week or so the party kept losing its candidates and workers to blood-thirsty militants. One is struck at the apathy and detachment on the part of others in the election fray. Don't they realise that having overwhelmed the frontline ANP, the militants won't stop at that; they will move on to others including them. The whole system and the country is at stake - not just an election victory. What we see happening in KPK and Balochistan or parts of Sindh is only the prelude; a kind of Armageddon, between the forces that stand by our national existence and those out to undo it by all means, is in the making.
So it would be utterly fallacious on the part of the parties to believe the militants when they say their target are the ANP, PPP and MQM and not the ones who were not part of the previous government. They need to rethink their stance and remain on alert against forces that are anti-democratic and are presently engaging only these three parties. And this is to be done by the political parties at their own level, for they can't afford to leave it for the caretakers whose inability to do it needs no further proof. As a first step, the parties should sit together - if nothing else but to put up a show of unity of thought and action against their common enemy. Unfortunately, however, public perception obtains that some of the parties face no threat of violence because of their pro-Taliban mindset as against others who are determined to fight the curse of militancy. There is also the impression, and even some pronouncements, that Punjab is being spared of violence for its political bigwigs have soft corner for the Taliban. Doesn't it mean the Taliban have already won the battle of minds. Then the parties should agree to a set of rules to be observed on the election trail in order that their leaders' statements and workers' muscles don't raise tampers beyond civilized limits. They may also share the truth that bigger rallies are hardly reflective of the parties real on the ground popularity. The fact is that the Election Commission of Pakistan, caretaker governments and other state institutions can do only as much. In Pakistan, as in many other developing countries, obtaining conditions for democracy to grow and flourish is almost exclusively the joint responsibility of political parties. Their mutual bickering beyond reasonable limits would tend to undermine the public support for the cause of democracy. At this crucial juncture of our political history it is the duty of the parties to stand by the side of the ANP in its heroic defence of democracy. Should they fail the fear is that in the Pakistan of today we stand in the row of falling dominos.
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