Signs Of Fascism: 4 Times PTI Leaders Incited Murder

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders are not new to making statements that lay bare the party's fascist streaks. From Prime Minister Imran Khan to federal ministers, the PTI leaders have expressed a desire at some point to hang their opponents over various allegations -- usually unproved graft charges.

This time, such remarks were made by Federal Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar, who alluded to the previous governments' supposed corruption almost gave a fatwa for the murder of their leaders.

In a press conference on Monday, Sarwar said the politicians who have looted the country for over 35 years deserved to be murdered. “They looted the national exchequer ruthlessly during their terms in government,” he claimed, adding that all these people were 'wajibul qatl' (fit to be killed).

However, Sarwar is not alone in making such remarks. Another federal minister, Faisal Vawda, has made such statements twice--once on a live TV show and then in the National Assembly.

On June 11, 2019, Faisal Vawda said on a television programme suggested to 'hang 5,000 people to transform the future of 220 million-strong nation'. Days later, the federal minister defended these remarks in the National Assembly, saying the corrupt and money-launderers should be 'tied and dragged behind a vehicle before being hanged'.

In Dec 2018, Communication Minister Murad Saeed said people who had 'looted' the national wealth should be hanged at Islamabad's D-Chowk, and their assets to be taken over by the state. He made these remarks during a National Assembly session.

In 2014, Imran Khan, who had been on a campaign to oust Nawaz Sharif's government, had warned the Punjab Police against any action against his supporters. He had said: “If any cop so much as laid a finger on a rally-goer, I will hang him with my own hands."