ISLAMABAD: Condem­n­ing the firing incident during the PTI long march in Wazirabad, a number of lawmakers sitting on the treasury and opposition benches on the opening day of the new National Assembly session on Thursday advised former prime minister Imran Khan to shun “politics of confrontation” and sit across the table to settle “disputes” through dialogue.

“Politics is the name of dialogue through which issues are resolved. Doors [for talks] are never closed in politics,” said Defence Minister and a firebrand PML-N leader Khawaja Asif while speaking on a point of order during the thinly-attended sitting which was later adjourned till Friday morning after an opposition member pointed out lack of quorum.

The minister said if they would sow the seeds of “hatred, discord and division” in politics, they would get a “culture of violence”. He said the country had been witnessing a rise in violence in politics since the assassination of first prime minister Liaquat Ali Khan in 1951. He said the hanging of PPP founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto also gave rise to the violent political culture.

Mr Asif was of the view that the politicians should refrain from inciting violence for political point scoring, adding that the firing incident on Imran Khan was evidence that the people did not hesitate in killing their opponents for their political ideology. When the political leaders would promote violence, their followers would believe that they had got a licence for resorting to violence. He stressed the need for discouraging the use of “state apparatus” for settling personal score, otherwise “bullet will rule” the politics in future.

Condemn firing at PTI long march, call for investigation

Mr Asif said the whole nation was condemning the firing incident, but at the same time the political leaders and workers should work for the promotion of culture of dialogue, adding that parliament was the biggest platform for political discussions.

PPP’s Ghulam Mustafa Shah called for constituting a “commission” to hold investigations. “The Punjab government should be probed as the incident has happened within its jurisdiction,” said the PPP MNA, adding that even before starting of the PTI’s protest, there were talks about “bloody march”.

Taking the floor, PTI dissident Noor Alam Khan also condemned the incident and blamed the Punjab government over its alleged failure to provide security to the PTI march.

“The Punjab government should answer as to why it failed to provide protection to a political leader. Why it showed negligence?” he said, demanding that the chief minister, the inspector general of police and the deputy commissioner of the area all should be investigated.

Mr Khan said this could be the job of the state enemy which wanted to create chaos in the country by targeting the political leadership and its workers.

“All the politicians are requested to sit on the table after abandoning their egos,” he said. The PTI MNA also condemned the arrest of former deputy speaker of Punjab Assembly Sardar Dost Mazari and asked the speaker to take the notice of his “political victimisation”.

Chief of his own faction of Balochistan National Party Akhtar Mengal said when the doors for dialogue were closed and abusive language was used against political opponents then the decisions were made with bullets, and not through ballots.

Published in Dawn, November 4th, 2022