Pakistan minister recovering after attack
LAHORE: Pakistan’s interior minister was recovering in hospital on Monday after being shot in a suspected assassination attempt possibly linked to blasphemy, with the attack seen as an ominous sign for security ahead of nationwide elections. Ahsan Iqbal, 59, was shot in the right arm as he prepared to leave a public meeting in his constituency in Punjab province late on Sunday.
A man identified by police as Abid Hussain and said to be in his early 20s was wrestled to the ground by officers and bystanders as he was preparing to fire a second shot.
He is due to appear in an antiterrorism court on Monday.
Police are still investigating, but local deputy commissioner Ali Anan Qamar said that the shooter said he was inspired by a controversy last year in which a small amendment to the oath election candidates must swear had to be hastily reversed after it was linked to blasphemy.
The row sparked a three-week sit-in last November by a previously little-known group, which paralysed the capital. That demonstration ended when the government capitulated to the protesters’ demands — including the ousting of the federal law minister — in a deal brokered by the military.
At the time many Pakistanis and analysts warned that a dangerous precedent had been set in which fringe groups could bend the state to their will by citing blasphemy, a highly inflammatory charge in the conservative Muslim country.
Iqbal, a champion of Pakistan’s much-persecuted religious minorities who has condemned hate speech against them, pushed for a negotiated settlement to the controversy. Police said they were investigating links between Hussain and the controversy, including the small extremist party at the centre of it.after the shooting Iqbal was airlifted to Lahore.
Doctors performed surgery on him until the early hours, Shafqat Waseem Chaudhry, one of the fivemember medical team responsible for him, said. Iqbal is “stable” but will remain in the intensive care unit for two days, he said. The attack was swiftly condemned by the international community as Pakistanis voiced fears it represented an attempt to weaken democracy ahead of the federal elections. The elections are set to be only the second ever democratic transition in the country, and are widely expected to be held late this summer.
Z Yousafzai, the father of Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, “condemned” the attack, tweeting that it was a “bad omen for upcoming general elections that is supposed to be free, fair and transparent”.