Pakistan is going to host the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation Summit on March 23, 2022, in Islamabad. Meanwhile, Pakistan Democratic Movement has announced a country-wide protest, a long march against PTI, the ruling party, on the issue of rising inflation on the same day.
In addition, Pakistan Peoples Party has also vowed to launch a protest in the next month. No doubt, a peaceful protest is the democratic right of every individual as well as an opposition party, especially for the national interest. Contrarily, in recent days, the country has faced heinous incidents of terrorism in Islamabad and Lahore. However, in the context of the OIC convention, the opposition should reschedule their sit-ins. Because in demonstrations, whether peaceful or violent, the black sheep and extremist outfits get a chance for terrorist activities.
However, if any such incident happens before or on the day of the OIC meeting, it will raise a question on the country’s security and tarnish Pakistan’s image internationally. The OIC meeting of Foreign Ministers will also be affected worst and might be possible the meeting will be cancelled. That’s why, rather than launching a long march on Pakistan Day, the opposition should reschedule it.
Apart from that, the government should arrange a joint session of the National Assembly in which Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, the representative of Pakistan in the OIC, present the key points of the OIC summit and his agenda regarding national interest. Hence, it is imperative that both the government and the opposition make this debate a cordial one by critically discussing the core issues faced by the Islamic world out of their personal and political interest, especially PM Imran Khan, who vowed to completely boycott the leader of the opposition.
ENGR. ALI HAIDER
LAHORE
