Electoral violence

The last four months have been the bloodiest in our violence-ridden country's political arena. According to a report prepared by the Centre for Research and Security Studies, as many as 2,674 people, 1,542 of them civilians, have been killed and another 2,386 sustained injuries in political violence since January.
Some of the killings have been the result of ethno-political violence in Karachi, religio-political terrorism in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, as well as insurgent/nationalists attacks in Balochistan. But well over 700 people have lost their lives in Taliban strikes on political parties' offices and candidates. They are still counting their dead.
The religious parties which thought they were immune to the Taliban's penchant for indiscriminate blood-letting, too, have discovered that the truth is a lot harsher than they would want to acknowledge. The JUI-F faced the wrath of TTP on Monday when a bomb explosion on its rally in Kurram Agency left at least 23 people dead and 47 injured. Seven of the wounded died in hospital raising the casualty count for that one incident, as of Tuesday, to 30. Claiming responsibility for the carnage, the TTP spokesman said the attack was targeted against the JUI-F candidate Munir Orakzai (he was lucky to survive), not the party he belonged to. The spokesman, of course, did not bother to explain why 30 other lives had to perish. A string of attacks that followed the next day, ie, Tuesday, again targeted a JUI-F candidate - this time in Hangu. A suicide bomber riding a motorcycle blew himself up near a JUI-F provincial assembly candidate's convoy, killing 12 and injuring another 20. The same day at another location in Upper Dir, a Jamaat-i-Islami candidate's car was attacked on his way back from an election meeting, causing the death of his son and driver.
Human life for these holy worriers has no value. Anyone and everyone is a target. The three liberal parties bearing the brunt of TTP's terror campaign have been venting their frustration at the Election Commission and the caretaker government, neither of which has the power to counter violent religious extremists. That is the job of intelligence agencies and the security forces.
There is another potential, though transient, threat of violence that can and should be controlled by political players. In the heat and dust of electoral campaign leaders of almost all major parties have been using intemperate language, causing tempers to rise. It did not sit well with the PML-N's supporters and sympathisers sensibilities, for instance, when while ridiculing that party's election symbol, lion, the PTI Chairman indirectly called its leader 'geedar'(jackal) which is a symbol of cowardice in our culture. Such remarks can be crowd-pleasers, but they tend to provoke anger among opponents.
Even more inflammatory is a smear campaign the JUI-F chief, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, has been running against PTI Chairman Imran Khan because he has thrown a tough challenge to Maulana in his KP home base. The JUI-F launched a disinformation campaign against Imran linking him with an alleged agenda of international Jewry, wrongly claiming his former wife is a Jew. She is a Christian. Even if she were Jewish, why should that be an election issue? Staying strictly within Islam's permissible limits, Muslims are allowed to marry People of the Book, ie, Christians and Jews. The Maulana surely knows that the present-day Muslim world's issue with the Jews is not related to religion, it is about a political problem created by Israeli occupation of Palestine in particular and its aggressive regional posture in general.
Yet the Maulana has been insistent on pushing a falsehood to exploit religious sentiments of voters to make some worldly gains through electoral success. He's been pushing all the red buttons, even dragging in Imran's children. Setting aside his Jewish connection claims for a few seconds, he posed the question at a public meeting in Lakki Marwat on Sunday, "how can a person like Imran Khan dream of becoming the prime minister of Islamic Republic of Pakistan when his sons go to churches for worship." He took another, even more lethal swipe at Imran, saying he was promoting Jewish agenda with the support of Ahmadis, and hence (unnamed) ulema had issued a 'fatwa' that casting vote for him is 'haram'. The PTI leader, it may be recalled, had pointed a finger at JUI-F for creating and circulating a video on the social media involving the Ahmadiya community with the express purpose of damaging his party.
The present process of transition of power from one elected government to another, needless to say, is an important step forward for democracy. It is equally important for the political class to show maturity and create a culture of civilised debate and discussion. Politicians must maintain common decency in criticising opponents, and control the tone and tenor of their rhetoric. Hitting below the belt style of campaigning is bad manners. And display of bad manners in situations, such as the one prevailing in this country, can be infectious. As a result, tempers run high, increasing the likelihood of violent reactions. Tuesday evening's accident at a public meeting in Lahore in which Imran was badly injured, cutting short his campaign, momentarily made all contestants to ignore their rivalries and wish him well. But the underlying tensions are not going to go away, especially in the final few hours left for campaigning.
This is an extra sensitive period. Political atmosphere so close to the Election Day and on the day itself is always highly charged, and susceptible to eruption of constituency-based violence. All concerned must help reduce tensions. The ECP has a vital role to play in implementing its code of conduct, preventing aerial firing in or around polling stations. Hopefully, that rule will be strictly implemented on May 11. The troops will also be at the ready to check any untoward incident, and to provide protection against extremist attacks at the polling stations. But the political parties bear the main responsibility to control passions. They must ensure that their workers play by the rules.
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