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Information minister severely condemns shoe-throwing incident
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Minister says Imran Khan introduced culture of hate speech and violence
ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Information, Broadcasting, National History and Literary Heritage Marriyum Aurangzeb severely condemned the incident of shoe throwing at Nawaz Sharif and said that all the politicians and other stakeholders would have to move forward with a collective thought to prevent the recurrence of such happenings otherwise they could become a common sight in the classrooms, schools and market places.
She was talking to the media on Sunday. She said that the incident was the outcome of the culture of violence and the slogans like “drag them out”, “pick them up” and “pull them down” introduced by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan during the last four and a half years.
Marriyum said, “When a leader stands and talks like that it changes, nurtures and forms mindsets and behaviours of millions of people.”
The minister said that the politicians would have to think seriously about transforming the difference of opinion into hate syndrome because that would be a misfortune for the whole society. She said that no words would be enough to denounce the incident not because it happened with Nawaz but because the emerging trend in the society was very worrying.
Marriyum welcomed the condemnation of the incident by political leaders, including Imran and remarked that it was imperative to go beyond that and integrate that thinking with their behaviours. She said that a leader should choose his words carefully, adding that Imran could not come up with any performance during the last four and a half years except making provocative speeches.
Marriyum observed that Khawaja Asif and Ahsan Iqbal faced similar occurrences but they pardoned those who were responsible for them because they were the followers of the Prophet (PBUH) who always preached forgiveness, adding that the people should fashion their lives in conformity with his sayings and the way he lived his life. The minister said that people should learn a lesson from the incident and try to inculcate the virtue of tolerance in their lives. She wondered what the international media were showing and saying about the incident and emphasised the need for individual and collective efforts to prevent such incidents.
