The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on Friday strongly condemned the bomb explosion outside an election office of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) in Karachi and other acts of violence there. It expressed serious concerns at the continued targeting of candidates, activists and election campaigns of political parties.
In a statement issued on Friday, the commission said that it condemned the attack on the MQM’s election office in Karachi in the strongest terms and believed that the continued attacks on the candidates and workers of certain political parties unmistakably displayed an angle of partisan politics in which parties that advocated certain views were being attacked.
“If this targeted violence persists, it would render the elections meaningless and make the country hostage to fascist forces,” the statement said.
“The caretaker set-up and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) have repeatedly vowed security for the candidates and the election campaigns. If that security has indeed been provided it does not appear to have made a difference and has certainly not made the parties and their workers at the receiving end of this rather systemic targeting feel secure at all. It does not inspire confidence that not one perpetrator of the numerous attacks targeting the MQM and the Awami National Party (ANP) in the last few days has been arrested,” the statement said.
“HRCP is also writing to the chief election commissioner to convey its acute concern at this alarming state of affairs and to implore him to take steps that prevent the targeted attacks on the candidates, workers and campaigns of certain political parties and ensure that these parties can continue their campaigns without fear of attacks,” it added.
“HRCP also cautions all political parties against staying silent simply because those being targeted today happen to be affiliated with different political parties. If an onslaught like this cannot bring home the merits of solidarity and unequivocal opposition of elements whose wishes find expression only in butchery nothing will,” HRCP said.
The HRCP said that at this juncture, it was more important than ever for the citizens to realise and assert their democratic rights, for if they were scared into staying away from voting then those who have been spilling blood to deny them these rights would succeed in hijacking the polls.