A couple of years back, Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar was picturising a song in one of the studios in Mumbai for his upcoming movie, with lots of snakes around him. These untamable creatures were part of the song. During the shooting, the Mumbai police raided the studio and arrested the director of the movie for failing to produce permission from the society for animal’s rights. Actor Akshay Kumar was also taken into custody as he was the part of the song. Election campaigning in Pakistan is at its peak as elections are only a week away. The PML-N is taking a real tiger around the city in Lahore to attract people on the streets as their election symbol is the tiger. The poor animal is chained and forced to sit on the top of a car in the scorching heat of Lahore. I know, in a country where human rights are ignored and never given importance, raising issue of animal rights will sound like nothing more than a joke. In the hope that a dumb animal might get its right where humans do not, I request the caretaker Chief Minister of Punjab Najam Sethi and Chief of the Election Commission of Pakistan Mr Fakhruddin G Ibrahim to look into the issue of using animals in election campaigns keeping in view public safety and the rights of animals. M RAFIQUE ZAKARIA Karachi