IT beggars belief that lawmakers would throw around statements that make them appear indistinguishable from the violent extremists who for years have caused rivers of blood to flow in the country. In a widely shared video on social media on Monday, PTI MNA Attaullah Niazi made a shocking and explicit threat. “If a single hair on Imran Khan’s head is harmed, those running the country be warned. Neither you nor your children will remain. I will be the first to carry out a suicide attack on you,” he said. Mr Attaullah is no shrinking violet when it comes to extreme reactions. He is one of two PTI legislators booked over the storming of Sindh House in Islamabad a few weeks before the vote of no-confidence against Mr Khan. But his threat of suicide bombing — which he retracted yesterday with a flimsy ‘clarification’ — is beyond the pale, even in a climate where political discourse has plumbed new depths of uncivility. His words cannot be dismissed as the utterings of an intemperate individual or an expression of intense devotion to his party. Appropriating the language of terrorists is never acceptable; in fact, it is against the law. Suicide attacks have had very real, devastating consequences for tens of thousands of people in Pakistan, including the trauma of suffering life-changing injuries and/or the loss of loved ones in such incidents. Bandying around threats of similar violence trivialises their experience.

Regrettably, Mr Attaullah is not the first legislator to use such rhetoric. Former federal minister Shehryar Afridi declared at a public gathering in March that were suicide not forbidden in Islam, he would have tied explosives to his body and targeted the “hypocrites” in parliament, referring to those with whom the then opposition was working to oust Mr Khan as premier. Around the same time, then aviation minister Ghulam Sarwar also expressed the desire to carry out a suicide bombing and wipe out the opposition. Curiously, those who have made these execrable statements all belong to the PTI. Is that a coincidence or is it the natural outcome of a party culture that encourages maximalist language and whose leader has demonstrated a perplexingly kid-glove approach towards militants, even urging the government some years ago to allow the TTP to open an office in Pakistan? There must be some red lines where rhetoric is concerned. Threats to commit violence, regardless of ‘provocation’, is a glaringly obvious one.

Published in Dawn, June 8th, 2022