Rights activists call for strengthening liberal voices

WASHINGTON: Terrorism and international isolation, not dissent, are the real threats to Pakistan but unfortunately the authorities refuse to recognise that reality, said former Pakistan Ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, while opening the two-day deliberative conference titled ‘Pakistan After the Elections.’

Several prominent Pakistani dissidents currently living in various countries gathered here to “discuss ways of ensuring greater support for pluralist ideas, human rights, and democracy in Pakistan.”

Addressing the gathering, Haqqani said that the heavy-handed suppression of diverse views in Pakistan would not end the country’s economic crisis nor would it help the government’s stated purpose of projecting a positive image for the country. “The best way to have a positive image is to build a positive reality, one that is free of the taint of terrorism, external dependence, and lack of democracy,” he said. The two day conference will end tomorrow with an event to be also addressed by US Congressman Brad Sherman, Chairman Emeritus of the Asia subcommittee of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. The conference is the third organised by the South Asians Against Terrorism and for Human Rights (SAATH), a grouping of prodemocracy Pakistanis co-hosted by Haqqani and US-based columnist Dr Mohammad Taqi.

Earlier, SAATH conferences were held in London in 2016 and 2017. This year, the conference was scaled down as some of the forum’s Pakistani participants “were barred or intimidated by authorities from participating,” the organisers said.

A few days ago, Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) member of the National Assembly, Mohsin Dawar, was detained at Peshawar airport as he was leaving Pakistan. He informed the conference organisers that the government had unlawfully stopped him from attending the meeting.

Pro-democracy Pakistanis, including liberals and Baloch, Sindhi, Pashtun, Seraiki and Muhajir nationalists see Imran Khan's government as an authoritarian rule, SAATH said in a press statement.

“In our discussions, we hope to address questions such as where Pakistan stands in the aftermath of the 2018 elections, what are the consequences to Pakistan of mainstreaming terrorists and terror groups, and how might the weakening voices for reform and a liberal vision be strengthened,” the statement added.

Dr Taqi said that freedom-loving Pakistanis needed to join hands “to create space for intellectual and political discourse.”

The Pakistani press remains in chains, electronic media is being coerced into submission, journalists are being hounded, and the political parties have been tamed into submission, he observed, adding that resistance would continue against the authoritarian rule.