LAHORE: Around 150 people have signed up with their names for a campaign demanding deweaponisation and elimination of extremist and criminal elements who also act as coercive forces.

The petition for the campaign came up a few days after the attack by lawyers on Punjab Institute of Cardiology, where lives were lost and equipment was broken, and patients and staff were intimidated by lawyers in black coats, armed with sticks, rods and guns.

Nusrat Jamil, fundraising chairperson of the Sanjan Nagar Public Education Trust, said the campaign had gained traction very quickly and several people from all sections of society had come on board by putting in their names.

This includes journalists, academics and retired army men.

The campaign message reads as follows: “We, the citizens of Pakistan endeavour and dream of building a country that imbibes the values of tolerance, peace, humanity and equal protection for all citizens. We are, therefore, deeply shocked, distressed and agonised by the attack on Pakistan Institute of Cardiology, Lahore, by hordes of lawyers on Dec 11, 2019.

“Has Pakistan been reduced to such an impoverished state of governance that it is now possible for any group with a few guns and a few hundred goons to launch attacks on any organisation, kill people, pull out oxygen masks from gasping patients, tear down operation theatres and set ablaze police vehicles? Has the state surrendered to lawless militias? Has the state voluntarily begun to inscribe its own epitaph?

“We urge the Pakistan government to harness all its resources to identify each and every person engaged in this criminal attack and ensure that criminals receive the harshest punishments prescribed in our law books.

“We also pray that the police force, always falling short on such occasions, is radically reorganised and reformed. We appeal that all civilian weapons be withdrawn and all private armies disbanded (Article 256) to eliminate elements whose coercive force and criminal activities continue to cause irreparable harm to the people and state of Pakistan.

“Lawyers are the people who must enforce the law, there is nothing more esteemed.” Ms Jamil lamented that even after the incident, not enough people from the government condemned the attack.”

Karachi-based architect Naeem Sadiq, who spearheaded the campaign, said the problem in Pakistan was that people held drawing room discussions, but did not speak out against anything.

“This petition or campaign at least gives people a chance to speak out,” he said talking to Dawn. “If we do not even do that then society will just dismantle and die.”

He said hundreds of people were requesting for their names to be put in and are endorsing it.

“The horrific aspect of the act was that even an enemy will not attack a hospital,” he said.

“And it’s not the first time. Lawyers are consistently doing this sort of thing, and tomorrow such people may become head of judiciary,” Sadiq said.

He said militancy had often been promoted by governments themselves by allowing private armies, which are unregistered, with influential people keeping body guards with guns – sometimes in dozens.

“We as citizens of the country should not stay silent over such happening,” he added.

Academic Baela Raza Jamil said that was “unprecedented behaviour by people of a profession that took oath to abide by rule of law.”

“Yet they have violated their own professional conduct,” she said.

“Now with the world knowing about this, we are in for tough times in our home ground. There must be accountability,” she stressed.

Published in Dawn, December 20th, 2019