A crass act!

Heated political rhetoric has been a hallmark of Pakistani politics for decades — but there is a growing rise, of late, in tendencies on the part of our political leaders to name-call their rivals and sling mud at them. While our august houses routinely reverberate with verbal duels and shouting matches among our elected representatives, the podiums for political speeches are primarily used to vent out venom meant to poison the minds of people and secure their votes. Television talk-shows serve as an even bigger platform to publicise political rhetoric brimful of hatred.

Use of crass language to hurl insults and allegations is a common denominator in case of our political class. However, what is most unfortunate is that even the position of a Prime Minister that requires an incumbent to set high standards as to their overall conduct — including how to talk, speak and debate –has failed to arrest the growing tendency among our politicians to get carried away. Prime Minister Imran Khan regularly uses cringe-worthy language in his speeches, including language that would have got most broadcasters in trouble with regulators if it had not come out of the prime minister’s mouth. And, top opposition leaders have chosen to fully commit to the same approach. While some may claim they are only fighting fire with fire, the truth is that they are just trying to copy Imran’s success model.

Civility has gone out of the window. But, as we have seen, heated political rhetoric often leads to increased political violence. Even violence, however, has done little to dial down the rhetoric for more than a few days at a time. This has culminated with several public figures making more blunt calls to tone down the language. PM Imran even said that Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa had asked him to avoid ‘colourful’ language, just moments before he spun out his ‘greatest hits’ against all of the major opposition leaders. A recent war of words led to prominent religious scholar Mufti Taqi Usmani offering a piece of advice.

Elected officials need to respect the seats that they have been elected to. They all need a reminder that their constituents include the people they beat in elections, and in the case of the prime minister, every single person that he has attacked in his speeches. That is not to say that the opposition is without fault.

But true leadership is about rising above.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 16^th, 2022.

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