ISLAMABAD: Former Senate chairman and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Senator Raza Rabbani on Friday has asserted that the state of Pakistan has always supported religious and extremist parties for its personal gains.
“From 1947 to date, the state has always supported right-wing religious and extremist parties and encouraged their internal and external doctrines,” said Senator Rabbani while speaking on the Senator floor.
Rabbani further said that the state was defined by the civil and military bureaucracy of Pakistan, not the people sitting in parliament. “The people of Pakistan have never been given the right of political dissent,” the senator pointed out.
“If a judge passes a judgment against them, the state makes an example out of them. And, all of these people, at one stage or the other become missing people,” the senator added.
The PPP senator also expressed alarm over reports that the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) was regrouping in Afghanistan, “which could possibly fuel terrorism in Pakistan”. “On what terms is the state talking about a ceasefire with the banned group?” he questioned.
Rabbani questioned the government’s haste to extend support to the Afghan Taliban, when the latter did “not even recognise the border”. “They are not ready to recognise the border, so why are we moving forward?” questioned Rabbani, during the session today.
He asked the foreign minister to take the parliament into confidence about a recent incident in which the new rulers in Afghanistan had reportedly barred Pakistan’s security forces from fencing the border.
Pakistan has fenced most of the 2,600km border despite protests from Kabul, which has contested the British-era boundary demarcation that splits families and tribes on either side.
Afghan defence ministry spokesman Enayatullah Khwarazmi had said the Taliban forces stopped the Pakistani military from erecting what he called an “illegal” border fence along with the eastern province of Nangarhar on Sunday.
Sialkot lynching
Meanwhile, a resolution condemning the horrific mob attack and killing of Sri Lankan citizen in Sialkot was tabled and unanimously passed in the upper house.
The 48-year-old, Priyantha Kumara, was employed as an exports manager at a factory. He was brutally murdered by a mob earlier this month after being accused of committing blasphemy. His body was later set on fire.
According to the resolution, the House reiterated that extremism was condemnable in all its forms and manifestations. “The unfortunate incident of this gruesome brutality reflects the mindset of extremist elements that exist in our society, which has not only tarnished the peaceful image of Pakistan but also Islam,” it read.
The statement further maintained that this brutality was in sheer violation of the spirit, principles, teachings and injunctions of Islam, the practices of the Holy Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him), morale and human values, Constitution and law of Pakistan and customs and norms of Pakistani society.
The resolution further stated that the upper house expressed its profound concern over the existence of such intolerant tendencies in our society, and strongly recommended discouraging the occurrence and recurrence of such gruesome incidents in the name of desecration of religion, which actually are against the very spirit and teachings of Islam.
“The government should take immediate administrative, legal and awareness measures for eradication and countering of violent tendencies in the society,” the resolution urged.
