The Lahore High Court on Thursday issued notices to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) the Wild Life Department and the Lahore DCO on a petition seeking directions on how to stop the show of a live tiger in Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).
According to details, human rights activist Faryal Gohar had filed the petition pertaining to the dignity and safety of wild and endangered animals.
She said the state religion of Islam had no shortage of teachings about the dignity to be afforded to all animals and the protections the vulnerable creatures deserved.
She said the way wild animals were treated could and did directly affect human safety as well, particularly when they were paraded in public. She said the PML-N being allocated the symbol of “Tiger” by the ECP for its election campaign was in the consistent practice of taking tigers and other big felids to its election rallies. This, apparently, was done at least partly to draw crowds and to assert political symbolism, she said.
She said such exhibitions of the big cats posed two immediate problems. Firstly, a species such as the tiger was endangered and deserved proper treatment and care. Secondly, the presence of a wild animal among an ocean of people could cause undue stress to the big creature leading to unpredictable behavior that could threaten the security and lives of people attending these rallies.