Daily Times

Religious extremist group Tehreek-e-Labbaik (TLP) leaders including Khadim Hussain Rizvi were detained and booked under terrorism and treason charges last month. The government also vowed to act against the workers and supporters of the TLP who resorted to violence, while protesting a Supreme Court (SC) verdict that acquitted Aasia Bibi of blasphemy charges under which she remained incarcerated for nine years. However, it remains unclear as to what legal course of action the government plans on adopting towards the TLP chief in the long run. What is clear is that the authorities did not consult their legal team to get a better understanding of the case to be made against TLP. For instances, legal experts have widely criticised the addition of treason charges against Rizvi and other TLP leaders on ground that their actions did not really fall under that category.

Thus, a better legal understanding was needed on the government’s part to offer clarity on the subject. It would be difficult to ensure meaningful action in this case to make the TLP leaders pay for the havoc they wreaked on the streets to further their political agenda.

At least 16 days have passed since Rizvi and others were detained and it is still not clear if they would be convicted of their crimes. The cases which have been registered against him have not progressed either, and the government appears to be shying away from giving details about the issue.

The PTI government was praised for initiating the crackdown and it was hoped that the impunity which the group had long been enjoying will be finally put to an end. But it appears that the authorities are not fully determined to act against the group for hate speech and incitement to violence which is the focal point of the group’s politics. Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry told the media that Rizvi had to be placed under ‘protective custody’ to maintain law and order. One wonders as to how come a known hate preacher who has called for murder of state officials and incited violence against minority communities needs to be ‘protected’ instead of being acted against? Much has been said about the state patronage that such extremist groups have long been receiving. The recent ‘action’ against TLP might mean that the state patronage is over, and that too after the group’s leaders went a step ahead and called for mutiny in the wake of the Aasia Bibi judgement. But going by the track record as well as the tone of the government, the impunity that these groups enjoy may not have been put to a halt just yet.  The federal ministers who commented on the detention of Rizvi and crackdown on the TLP appeared to be defensive and some even refrained from expressing their views on the subject. This suggests that there is no concrete plan to deal with the group which has been disrupting peace of the country in the name of religion.

Eradicating the menace of extremism and promoting inclusiveness is in Pakistan’s own interest, regardless of the very real threat of international isolation that looms large if we continue to ignore this problem. The solution to this problem has to have bipartisan support. It is imperative that the government take a clear stance against all forms of extremism and bigotry, and the opposition should support this stance unequivocally, while dissociating itself from the bigots and their politics of hate. *

Published in Daily Times, December 17^th 2018.