While addressing the nation through a live televised speech on Sunday evening - Chief Adviser Professor Dr Muhammad Yunus said - a free, fair and participatory election will be held in the country after necessary reforms are taken for administration, judiciary, the Election Commission (EC), electoral system and securing countrywide law & order situation at its best.
We are in full agreement with the chief advisor's call. Following three back-to-back controversial and non-participatory national elections, it is indeed necessary to reform and strengthen all our democratic institutions.
However, even though the chief advisor hadn't specified a clear-cut timeline in his speech, we believe it should not be too long or too short. That said - we urge all political parties to remain patient until the compulsory reforms have been accomplished.
We are passing through an unprecedented and transitional phase in the country's history, and there is no point in overwhelming the country with unwarranted political demands, activities and demonstrations.
It was particularly disturbing to have witnessed how hundreds of our paramilitary auxiliary force or Ansar members stationed in front of the secretariat building had unleashed brutal violence against students, barely an hour after the chief advisor's live speech.
With 60 confirmed student injuries and some admitted in critical state, the Ansar members could have well refrained from indulging in this avoidable violence while engage in meaningful dialogues with student representatives.
Following Sunday night's unexpected violence, the government reportedly transferred at least 9 Ansar high-ups from their current postings. Previously the police had also transferred, temporarily suspended and sent some senior officers to early retirement.
However, there are enough reasons to suspect and question whether the former government loyalists are deliberately hatching and executing conspiratorial activities to disrupt law & order situation or not?
It is time for our intelligence agencies to remain all-out alert in this regard.
Concurrently, it is also irritating to follow how some junior and senior political leaders of different parties have turned impatient and restive for holding general elections the soonest.
The point, however, not even a month into the new interim government regime and a spree of protests and demonstrations, demanding rights of different political and non-political entities continues to trigger mayhem across the country.
While the police are yet to re-commence its full-fledged functioning, safety and security of our citizens being at an all-time low, and the country experiencing worst-ever floods in its existence, this is not the time for resorting to uncalled-for violence and vandalism.
We are drawing urgent attention of all our state-run institutions and organisations to strictly refrain from disrupting normalcy in these tensed and uncertain times.
Most important is to keep faith in the interim government's reform processes, stop disrupting its functioning and move forward with patience and persistence.
