Pakistan: PTI leader Nargis Baloch shot dead in Quetta by unidentified assailants

A leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was shot dead by unidentified men close to the Balochistan University in Quetta, Pakistan. Nargis Baloch was shot and killed while the attackers were riding a motorcycle near the university, according to information published by Pakistani media outlet ARY News. It is to mention that Nargis's two children were killed by gunshots earlier this year. Further, this incident is not the first attack on any PTI leader.  

According to an ANI report, there were other attacks on PTI leaders such as on August 6, when Malik Liaquat, a PTI's Member of the Provincial Assembly (MPA), was hurt when unidentified assailants fired at his vehicle. Four security guards were killed in the shooting, and the MPA and the other four suffered serious injuries. According to the media report, no one has been able to identify the assailants. 

Further, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) Chief Minister Mehmood Khan took note of the occurrence and directed the province's Inspector General (IG) to produce a report on it. In response to the event, the police launched a search operation. The CM has mandated the prompt arrest of the offenders. 

This comes as Pakistan's position with regard to law and order is constantly becoming worse. According to the ANI report, the nationwide militancy and lawlessness have made the internal security picture worse. Locally, there is an increase in criminal gang activity. 

It is time for the justice system to focus on lawbreakers: Imran Khan

Additionally, all of this has put Pakistani society's growth and harmonious coexistence in even greater danger. Imran Khan, the head of the PTI and a former Prime Minister of the nation, has addressed the matter by stating that the development agenda is based on the rule of law. He claimed, "The country’s development is not possible without subjecting the powerful and the weak to the same law,” ANI reported. 

Asking the attorneys to uphold the rule of law, Khan said, “It is time for the justice system to focus on lawbreakers and criminal elites,” ARY News reported. 

Meanwhile, earlier, Imran Khan said on Wednesday, August 17, that the country is "descending into a Banana Republic." These comments were made in the midst of unrest over the imprisonment of PTI leader Shahbaz Gill, which, in Khan's opinion, is a plot to harm him and his party, as per an ANI report. After Gill's remarks about the Pakistani army on television were deemed "highly hateful and seditious" by the nation's media regulator, Gill was taken into custody by the police on August 9.