ONE would have hoped that the conviction of at least a few of those culpable in Mashal Khan’s murder would bring some closure to a wrenching, shameful episode in Pakistan’s history of faith-based violence. That may be a forlorn hope in a country where recourse to even the most incendiary tactics, it seems, is justifiable if they achieve the desired ends. An anti-terrorism court on Wednesday handed down a sentence of capital punishment to the prime accused and varying jail terms to 30 others, while acquitting 26 suspects for lack of evidence. On Friday, activists of several religious organisations and religio-political parties took out a rally in Mardan to demand that the KP government take back its decision to appeal against the acquittal; they also condemned the verdict, which they said should be set aside and the convicts freed. Speakers who addressed the rally threatened province-wide agitation if the KP government made any attempt to proceed with its stated intention.

The depressing spectacle in Mardan is symptomatic of a morally bankrupt ruling class that will stoop to anything for political gain. Even exploiting a young man’s brutal mob lynching is kosher if it serves their purpose. Only that can explain how the outcome of a case that has by all accounts been properly investigated and prosecuted can be so distorted. The objectives of those who have devised this strategy, and a strategy it is, are very clear: deliberately inflame public passions and use an emotive issue to unite the people against the incumbent provincial government — all with an eye to the coming general election. Interestingly, among those leading this campaign are the JUI-F and the Jamaat-i-Islami, parties that are daggers drawn otherwise, not to mention the fact that the JI is PTI’s coalition partner in KP. While partners in a coalition need not always see eye to eye, its joining hands with the JUI-F over the matter at this point likely indicates what will be the main plank in the election campaign of the recently revived, though yet to be fully activated Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal. The KP government should not, out of political expediency, back down from its stated resolve to contest the acquittals in Mashal’s murder case; appeasement would be as damaging as is the cynical exploitation of the tragedy. The manipulation of religious sentiment, as Pakistan should well know, always has consequences, all too often terrible and lingering ones.

Published in Dawn, February 11th, 2018