Youth to play vital role for PTI success in general polls: Syed Wajid Bukhari

ISLAMABAD: Youth are the soul of PTI and they would play a significant role in the success of PTI to sweep in the upcoming general elections, huge number of new voters would cast votes in next elections and majority of them would like to vote for PTI.

This was stated by a prominent leader of Pakistan Tehreek e Insaaf  Syed Wajid Bukhari in an exclusive interview to the Patriot, he said that although Punjab government tried to give lollypop to the students in shape of laptops, scholarships, and helmets etc but like people of all age groups youth of the country have gained political maturity to elect the sincere leadership and they see a sincere leader in Imran Khan.

Answering a question he said Shia killings continued since a long time but law enforcement agencies have been failed to combat this ongoing barbarism against innocent people. He said that all the political stakeholders must condemn openly all the factors responsible for this inhumanity. He appreciated the courage of Imran Khan Chief of Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf for condemning Lashkare Jhangvi in a press conference, while bashing Punjab government he said that banned outfits have been shown a soft corner by the leaders of Punjab government.

Answering a question regarding intra party election at a very crucial stage when all the other political parties are busy for election campaigns, Syed Wajid Bukhari said that “Imran Khan wants to make PTI as a democratic institution; Imran Khan believes that only transparent intra party elections can make PTI a strong democratic institution and he is ready to pay any price for that”. He said that it could be very easy for Imran Khan to allot party tickets to the people of his choice but he believed that in this way there would be no difference left between PTI and other political parties which most of them have become inherited political parties.

Answering another question to control corruption in 90 days which seems a hard task, he said that if the head of an institute is honest, it could become almost impossible for the subordinates to do corrupt practices. He said that accountably in every institution would start from up to downwards as it is the matter of fact that only weak and less responsible people were made scapegoats and big fishes remain uncaught.

Describing the preparation of next general elections and alliances with other political parties he said that at the moment all the efforts are being utilized to held transparent intra party elections and on 23^rd March almost 80,000 elected representatives of PTI along with other supporters would be together at Minare Pakistan Lahore. He said that preparations are underway but PTI would accelerate election campaign in the coming days. He said that PTI Chief has made it clear that no alliance with the status quo political parties which are opportunist and can be seen in almost every government. He said that seat adjustment could be considered with the political parties having almost same manifesto as PTI.

     

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Shia killings: Genocide not sectarian violence

Almost 90 innocent Shia Muslims were killed in a brutal exploded attack when powerful bomb in a water tanker ripped through a packed bazaar in Hazara town Quetta, in less then 40 days when another incident of the same nature had taken lives of almost 100 innocent Hazara people. Hazara people staged sit in and denied to bury their dead ones until their demands were not listened. People from all walks of lives condemned attacks on innocent people, Shia Muslims all over the country staged protests and sit-ins in solidarity with Hazaras of Quetta. 

This scribe learnt that while reporting and commenting on this tragic incident few media reporters were frequently using the term ' sectarian violence'. This term is very frequently used in our society. I am not comfortable with this term and in order to explain that ongoing Mass killings of innocent people can be included in the category of 'genocide of shia Muslims' and not in 'sectarian violence' let me present definition of sectarian violence according to some research centers.

According to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, sectarian violence traditionally implies a symmetrical confrontation between two or more non-state actors representing different population groups. For any reader, anywhere in the world, sectarian violence may mean incidents involving two or more sects of a religion violently confronting one another. In Pakistan two main sects of Muslims are living, Shias and Sunnis. Majority is dominated by Sunnis as Shias are slightly over one fifth of the total population. 

As any news appears that certain number of Shia Muslims were gunned down or blown up in a suicide attack, in an act of “sectarian violence”, it pops up to the minds that there must have been a similar attack by Shia Muslims on the Sunni Muslims prior to this incident. But when one tries to search in this regard mostly fails to find any incident.

How this could be termed as ' sectarian violence' when a banned outfit accepts the killings, which consists of few individuals those hardly represent any majority Sunni groups. By using term sectarian violence, we are not doing justice with the Sunni Muslims as well, because it hints that they are supporting killings of Shias which they are not, infect they participate in the protests in huge numbers along with Shia Muslims. 

Considering these facts question comes into mind, why are those incidents not reported where the Sunni Muslims were the victims and the Shia Muslims were the alleged perpetrators or they had accepted the blames. It is hard to find any, just because there were none incidents of this kind. So, why is all this massacre of Shia Muslims labeled as sectarian violence? As a matter of fact, there is no sectarian violence going on in Pakistan. It has never been the mainstream Sunni Muslims who turned against the Shia Muslims and engaged in their killings. It is not sectarian violence that the Pakistanis are experiencing. It is “gradual genocide” of Pakistani Shia Muslims being carried out by a fraction of militants like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi who are quite frequently disowned by majority of Sunni Muslims. 

What is genocide? Genocide is "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group" therefore genocide if continued against shias as hundreds of Shia professionals like teachers, professors, doctors, surgeons, intellectuals, businessmen were killed in various target killing attacks across the country from Peshawar to Karachi, just battle field changes from one city to another. As part of the Shia genocide, at least 20,000 Shia Muslims have been killed in Pakistan since 1986. For example, Two days before an eye specialist Syed Ali Haider along with his 10 years old son was killed by unknown terrorists, a silent war against shias continued in Pakistan since Zia regime by militant banned outfits.

Pakistan has never before been in the need of harmony and unity between the Shia and the Sunni as much as now. Shia clergymen and other Shia leaders in Pakistan have so far urged their followers to exercise restraint in order for preventing the real sectarian violence from happening. Different organizations of Shia Muslims in Pakistan usually keep their responses to only peaceful protests. This is also a fact that almost all the Shia Muslims of Pakistan believe in unity, harmony and brotherhood with their fellow Sunni Muslims. Sunnis also condemn the attacks on innocent Shias but still some believe they need to echo their voice a bit more because united we stand and divided we fall, and may we fall as a nation if tragic situation continued. We all must discourage the term of “sectarian violence” because instead of objectively describing a reality, the using this term may worsen the situation as it suggests that both Shia and Sunni Muslims have a share in it which obviously they do not. 

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