Daily Times

“The state will not allow you to issue a fatwa (decree) to kill someone,” a determined Khwaja Asif (defence minister) remarked while pledging an “iron fist” response to anyone who tries to instigate others to take the law into their hands in the name of religion.

The usual perpetrator of such instances, TLP, might not have anticipated that its vice-emir’s taking on the state with a very public offer of Rs 10 million for engaging in violence against its sitting chief justice would be met with swift action.

Likely emboldened by an unexplainable patience shown by administration after administration regardless of their inflammatory rhetoric and repeated attempts to dismantle the writ of the state, the TLP had enough reason to believe that it could strike against anyone without any fear of the consequences. That the government not only immediately addressed the issue without any ambiguity and even filed a case against the man responsible (in addition to around 1500 unnamed suspects) under sections pertaining to terrorism and incitement of hatred as in the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 is a commendable development and finally hints at bold, courageous policy-making.

For far, far too long, these outfits spewing pure venom have been allowed to become a law unto themselves, undermining the state through a series of debilitating standoffs. Its strong grass-roots appeal, which the group can easily substantiate both on the streets and through the ballots, managed to convince the civilian structures to tread with caution. After all, these parties cannot risk alienating a large proportion of their election mandate in a country where religious sentiments get hurt easily.

Bringing the extremists under the rule of law so that everyone living in this country can enjoy the same freedom to life as them, however, requires a lot more from Islamabad. This existential threat that weaponises religion should not have been allowed to make a direct attack on the judiciary to be taken seriously. Its alleged involvement in some of the most violent atrocities committed on the minorities in the name of blasphemy, particularly the recent lynchings in Madyan and Sargodha, could also have been treated as an “open defiance of the Pakistan’s constitution.” *