EDITORIAL: There is no place in a democratic order for intolerance towards differences of opinion.
Unfortunately in this aspiring democracy an increasing tendency, especially during the recent years, has been to respond to political disagreement with physical violence.
The other day, Rauf Hassan, central information secretary of the main opposition party, PTI, was attacked, ostensibly, by a group of transgender persons as he headed to his car after appearing in a TV talk show.
They beat him up while one of them inflicted several cuts with a sharp blade on his throat and face. He was rushed to a hospital where he underwent a procedure for treatment of his wounds with as many as 19 stitches.
Condemning the incident, the incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan said the entire nation knew who was orchestrating attacks on his party leadership, adding “it’s the same powers that lurk in the shadows and use proxies to harass and threaten judges and make a mockery of elections by brazenly tampering with results”.
An FIR (First Information Report) has been registered with the police. Also, the government has formed a three-member special investigation team (SIT) to look into the incident.
PTI Secretary General and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, Omar Ayub, however, has rejected both the FIR and SIT, alleging that the police had tampered with the FIR and damaged the integrity of the case, demanding instead a judicial commission to bring the perpetrators to justice.
According to him, the incident was a well-planned assassination attempt, and that the attackers were not transsexual individuals but “well-trained assassins”. It, indeed, is difficult to believe that transgender persons would assault the spokesperson of a major political party.
Hassan is not known to have said or done anything offensive about the third gender; nor have transgenders as a group been involved in any act of violence against a prominent person.
Besides, those who have closely watched CCTV footage of the incident point out that one of the attackers had wrapped himself/herself in a shawl despite hot weather — apparently to hide his/her gender — and another was wearing jeans and joggers normally not favoured by transgender persons.
It is imperative, therefore, that good faith efforts are made by the government to identify the attackers and hold them to account. Otherwise, the incident will be seen as a warning by the present political dispensation to all its critics, and undermine whatever is left of public trust in it.
Political parties in the ruling alliance need to realise that allowing violence against their opponents can come back to haunt them down the line when they are on the other side of the fence. They should stop the use of fear and intimidation tactics against the opposition as well as other critics in the media and civil society.
And there must be zero acceptance of the abhorrent practice of enforced disappearances of which the latest case is that of poet and journalist Ahmad Farhad. All political players need to try and restore a sense of civility.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024