IT is disturbing how people in public office think so little of calling for individuals to be put to death on one pretext or another. On Monday, Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan while speaking to the media accused the leadership of the PPP and PML-N of having ruthlessly looted the public exchequer and said that such individuals were liable to be killed. In response, PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb excoriated him for resorting to what she termed the “language of containers”. Actually Mr Khan’s utterance was worse: in the light of the bloody history of vigilante ‘justice’ and religious extremism in this country, his words can be described as incitement to violence. They deserve to be condemned at the highest level of the party. There is a vast difference between political rhetoric which can make its point intelligently without resorting to abuse, and that which springs from a reductive thought process heedless of the consequences. To tag someone as ‘liable to be killed’ actually can and does lead to murder in Pakistan: the assassination of Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer is but one example.

Around a year ago, Federal Minister for Water Resources Faisal Vawda cavalierly declared on a couple of TV talk shows that “If we had it in our power to hang 5,000 people, the future of 220m people would be transformed”. He then went on to suggest that the Constitution, which enshrines fundamental rights to security of person and due process, was an impediment to true ‘progress’. Mr Vawda’s pronouncements too can be seen as part of a political ecosystem where since several years authoritarian tendencies are becoming more pronounced and the quality of public discourse has coarsened to an unacceptable level. When politicians speak in such a vein — and no party is entirely blameless — that disregard for decency and temperance percolates down to their supporters. With social media accessible to all and sundry to make their opinions known, the crudeness is further amplified. In the din, each side can only make itself heard if its words outdo the other, a situation that becomes uglier with every post and every tweet. Given it is the party at the centre, the PTI must set an example by asking its leaders to tone down their rhetoric. It should also admonish those amongst its ranks who appear resistant to the idea of a fair trial in cases of corruption and would rather advocate vigilante justice.

Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2020