Sir: I do not support any political party in Pakistan. But I am a great supporter of maintaining tolerance and ethics in politics by all the politicians and their followers in the country. It is quite unfortunate that when the former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, was about to begin his speech at a convention organised by Jamia Naeemia at Lahore on March 11, a person threw a shoe at him. In another incident, while addressing his party’s Workers Convention at Sialkot on March 10, a religious extremist blackened with ink face of Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Foreign Minister of Pakistan. This trend is creating very dangerous environment in our society. We have a right to oppose/ criticise/differ to any of our political leader for his/her political/religious views, but we do not have a right to be intolerant, unethical and disrespectful to him/her. No one can be given a right/license either to throw ink or a shoe to any politician of the country just to show his/her differing religious/political thoughts. It should be the responsibility of all the political leaders of Pakistan to guide and instruct their followers for being tolerant, respectful, and ethical to other political leaders of their country as well. This would be possible when all the political leaders of the major parties of the country would give due respect and reverence to one another first both in their speeches and actions. The politics of intolerance will destroy our society politically, religiously, socially and above all ethically. Politicians of Pakistan have a right to criticise the political thoughts of other politicians of the country but they don’t have the right to make ‘hate speeches’ against their rival politicians. This would do nothing but instigate the workers of that party against the leaders and the followers of other party and that is what we have recently witnessed in the case of Nawaz Sharif and Khawaja Asif in the form of throwing a shoe and ink at them, respectively. May God give sense to us all. ABDUL SAMAD SAMO Karachi Published in Daily Times, March 13th 2018.