LAHORE, Feb 21: Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) chairperson Asma Jahangir has expressed shock over the murder of Punjab Minister Zille Huma, saying it is a testament of the worsening intolerance in society.

In a press statement here on Wednesday, She called for addressing the whole issue of extremism and reasons for its growth through a public debate. Any further delay in dealing with the social ill could only result in more loss of human life, she said.

She said the murder by a religious zealot at a public meeting also demonstrated that women were unsafe, and that the government had failed in maintaining law and order across the country and protect its citizens, which was its constitutional duty.

She said the tragic incident also showed that extremism was on the rise and no attempt was being made to stop such tendencies.

Had the minister’s killer, Maulvi Mohammad Sarwar Mughal, been duly penalised for killing several women in 2002, the latest tragedy could have been avoided, the HRCP chairperson said.