Contempt of court proceedings have been initiated against Nehal Hashmi, who was earlier made to resign from his Senate membership. These actions came as soon as a video became viral on social media showing him issuing threats to those \u2018grilling the Prime Minister and his family\u2019 over the Sharifs\u2019 business dealings abroad. There is a legal as well as a social aspect to Mr Hashmi\u2019s statements that, according to him, were made \u2018casually\u2019 at a workers\u2019 convention.
\nThere are constitutional and legal restrictions on speech acts like those uttered by Mr Hashmi because a republic cannot survive a situation where citizens go about threatening fellow citizens or public officials with dire consequences for lawful actions.
\nThe less straightforward social aspect of Mr Hashmi\u2019s statements has to do with Pakistan\u2019s political culture in general. This culture remains at odds with the cardinal republican principle of legal equality of all citizens enshrined in our constitution. This culture is a reflection of social and economic inequalities that remain rife in the polity. More specifically, it emanates from patron-client relations between political parties\u2019 leadership and their base. This is best illustrated with Mr Hashmi\u2019s clarification issued after his meeting with Senate chairman on Wednesday. He said that his statements were not unusual for gatherings of party leaders and workers. This kind of tone can only pass as usual in a setting where social status, charisma or economic power \u2014 rather measures of competence, knowledge, and skills \u2014 distinguishes leaders from workers.
\nThis culture is not specific to the PML-N. Sadly, it is visible in most parliamentary parties including the relatively new Tehreek-i-Insaf and those doing politics in the name of religion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Contempt of court proceedings have been initiated against Nehal Hashmi, who was earlier made to resign from his Senate membership. These actions came as soon as a video became viral on social media showing him issuing threats to those \u2018grilling the Prime Minister and his family\u2019 over the Sharifs\u2019 business dealings abroad. There is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\n