Daily Times

The PML-N has been wounded once more. It has been a rocky four-year ride for the ruling party.

Soon after it came into power, the PML-N had faced allegations of electoral fraud, which was followed by aggressive dharna antics by the PTI and the PAT.

Next, the party shot itself in the foot with the Model Town incident, which has come back to haunt Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif in the form of the Justice Najafi report. The Model Town massacre was followed by the Panama Papers, in the aftermath of which PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif was deposed as Prime Minister. Then came the controversy over the Khatm-i-Nabuwwat clause in the 2017 Elections Reform Bill.

With the resignation of the federal law minister, the limelight seems to have shifted to his counterpart in the Punjab. Law Minister Rana Sanaullah had appeared on a television programme where he gave a statement about the persecuted Ahmadi community of Pakistan. Sanaullah had said that the Ahmadi community did not enjoy the same rights and freedoms as other minority communities in the country. This statement was twisted by the usual suspects and a series of events unfolded, involving a pir from Sial Sharif and legislators apparently under his influence. As of now, three PML-N legislators have resigned from the Punjab Assembly to protest Sanaullah’s refusal to resign.

Under the current political narrative, any statement that does not conform to the extreme right’s position on the persecuted community comes with dangerous repercussions. Meanwhile, it is also ironic that Sanaullah has been thrown in hot water for stating things as they are, but action has never been taken against him for his known connections to criminal gangs and sectarian terrorist outfits.

The utilisation of anti-Ahmadi sentiment for political assassination does not bode well for Pakistan’s minorities — not only religious and ethnic but also those who count as political dissidents. This indicates a clear radicalisation of Pakistan’s political narrative.

Though the brunt is being faced by the PML-N for now, other mainstream political parties will also suffer in days to come if this trend is not checked. Moderate and progressive elements in all mainstream parties need to come together to put an end to this harmful trajectory.  *

Published in Daily Times, December 13^th 2017.