Petition to authorities

Leading intellectuals, academics, professionals, journalists, lawyers, civil society activists and political workers met in Karachi on 7th February 2017, as a follow-up to a similar consultation held in Lahore on 3rd February, to discuss some pertinent questions, threats and predicaments that our society and state face. They resolved to approach the heads of all state authorities regarding our concerns and pursue our demands to make our people and the state safe and secure so as to usher in a new era of prosperity, enlightenment and human security, and ensure the survival of our republic as a civilized and strong nation-state at peace within and without.

We are concerned about:

• The rising tide of intolerance, hate-speech, violent extremism, apostatizing of opponents, sectarian hatred and killings, discrimination against women and minorities; threats to civil and human rights activists from both state and non-state actors; threats to and misuse of freedom of expression; hegemony of religious extremist ideologies, prevalence of anti-national and Daesh type of extremist narratives; marginalization of civil society and intimidation of enlightened sections of society at the hands of fascist gangs unleashed on the streets of Pakistan while law-enforcement agencies watch helplessly.

• The half-hearted and selective implementation of the National Action Plan; lack of parliamentary control over foreign and security policies and absence of parliamentary oversight over the security apparatus; the continuing multiple proxy wars among the neighboring countries serving the interests of disparate proxies and terrorist outfits; bilateral tensions on our borders; and unviable security policies undermining our standing in the comity of nations and our official standpoint.

We vow to pursue and demand from all state authorities the following:

• All state authorities – governments, legislative assemblies and the Senate, armed forces, law-enforcement authorities, intelligence agencies and judiciary – fulfill their constitutional and legal obligations in accordance with their constitutional mandate to curb intolerance, hate-speech in all its forms, apostatizing of intellectually and religiously differing standpoints, sectarian hatred and killings; violations of civil and human rights, including women, children and minorities’ rights; violent extremist ideologies; terrorism of all hues and on any pretext; suppression of civil society; witch-hunt of the enlightened intelligentsia and lawlessness of fascist gangs and proscribed organizations.

• All-sided implementation of the National Action Plan – especially against banned extremist outfits and the ‘good Taliban’, violent extremist ideologies and anti-national Daesh type narratives and poisonous and hateful material/curricula/broadcasts, creation of an authoritative National Security and National Action Plan Implementation Committee of Parliament – to whom all state authorities should be answerable; parliamentary oversight over and accountability of all state agencies; an end to proxy wars among neighbors and resumption of dialogue for good neighborly and cooperative relations; adoption of foreign and security policies that are commensurate with peoples’ interests and national resources to ensure peace and national integrity; and elimination of terrorism/subversion within and by all states in the region.

Karachi