PAKISTAN’S top rights activist Asma Jahangir has added to the feeling of fear in the country by speaking out about a plot to murder her. She says she has reason to believe the scheme is not an invention of an individual mind but a conspiracy whose origins can be traced to security operators of the state. Ms Jahangir is respected the world over for taking tough positions in the most trying conditions and reporting on difficult situations at considerable personal risk. As a lawyer she has stood by the principle that every accused has the right to defence in court. Hers has been a journey replete with many dangers, but she is not known for raising too many alarms about her personal safety. That she has done so now is significant and cannot be ignored or speculated upon. This is a serious enough charge for the authorities to undertake an investigation, and an urgent one.

But this is not just about the safety of one person, however valuable she is to the causes she has been pursuing and the people to whom she has given a voice. Ultimately, it is about pluralism and safeguarding the dissent that is vital to all human endeavours. Ms Jahangir vows the progressives in this country shall continue to fight. It will be tragic if those who are opposed to her creed resorted to violence instead of committing themselves fully and infallibly to the interplay between thesis and anti-thesis for forward movement. Since dialogue needs to be the preferred mode, some of the signs following Ms Jahangir’s allegations are positive. Political parties including the Jamaat-i-Islami, MQM, PML-N, PTI and PPP have all slammed the reported threats to Ms Jahangir as have members of civil society. They now need to take the debate to other forums including the media and the elected assemblies.