ISLAMABAD: Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Prof Ahsan Iqbal on Tuesday compared the recent attack on Imran Khan with the attack on him in the past, saying the young man who attacked him was also religiously motivated and was from a similar socio-economic background.
He was speaking in a Twitter Space titled, “How to end politics of hate and violence in the country”, organized by Naya Daur, a web-based media platform. People from different walks of life participated in the Twitter Space and later questions and answers session was also held.
The minister highlighted the attacks on former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz, Khawaja Asif, and several other leaders of the PML-N, saying all these attacks were under a proper campaign initiated by the PTI.
Expressing his regret over Imran Khan’s response to these attacks, Ahsan Iqbal said, at that time, the PTI chief, instead of condemning the incidents, declared them an expression of public anger against the PML-N.
Moreover, he added, during the election campaign in general elections of 2018, PTI tried to gain political advantage by imposing fabricated allegations against his faith.
At that time, the minister said, he had highlighted the growing extremist mindset in the society to the then National Security Committee and urged the then government to take strict action against such extremist elements.
He further said when Imran Khan was attacked, the nation as a whole condemned the act but Imran Khan played politics over the incident. Consequently, Imran khan bore the brunt of that spark of extremism in society, remarked the minister, while emphasizing to eliminate the polarization from the society which had been destroying the society and the country.
Prof Iqbal further added that extremism in a society was a common threat to all and no one would be able to bear it. He also highlighted several steps taken by the PML-N government during the previous tenure, particularly to mitigate the extremist mindset from the society.
The projects launched for the purpose included reforms in the education sector, improvement in the justice system, incentives for the youth, and mitigating the economic disparity in the society, he added. Unfortunately, the PTI government stopped all projects, said the minister, while appreciating Naya Daur for arranging a talk on the topic.
Furthermore, Ahsan Iqbal emphasized pluralism and acceptance of others’ ideas and opinions. Putting this in perspective, he mentioned, “if you paint things in black and white then society would consider others as evil, resultantly, society will be going toward extremism”.
