Mistakes have surely been made on both sides, but the wiser minds within both parties now seem to realize that this clash serves no real purpose — it’s pointless and ultimately damaging.
What’s worth pondering is why this sudden wave of hostility emerged. Just as the U.S., Israel, and certain Muslim rulers struck a fragile agreement — one that, like all such deals, favored the powerful — a strange and well-coordinated backlash surfaced. It seemed driven by fear: fear that Jamaat-e-Islami and other religious groups, despite their limited electoral strength, might still raise a strong and unified voice against the accord.
Then, almost on cue, a campaign was launched. Social media exploded with slander against religious figures — Mufti Taqi Usmani, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Allama Rizvi, and Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman — all targeted simultaneously. The onslaught was so aggressive that it forced these religious parties onto the defensive. And this happened before Hafiz Naeem had even made his speech or anyone had demanded condemnation from PTI. It was, quite evidently, a pre-planned operation — a calculated move to damage the credibility of those who have consistently led the anti-Israel narrative in Pakistan.
Ironically, even Israeli media acknowledged that “the pro-Palestine Jamaat-e-Islami has sharply criticized the agreement.” In other words, their message was resonating internationally — until PTI’s social media machine, perhaps unknowingly, launched a counter-narrative that ultimately benefited the very forces opposed to the Palestinian cause.
It’s also possible that elements within the local establishment played their part. But the outcome was clear: in an attempt to discredit Jamaat-e-Islami, the real issue — Palestine — was pushed to the background. Once again, PTI’s emotionally charged and idealistic workers became pawns in a larger geopolitical game — just as they had on May 9, when they were manipulated into actions they themselves could never have imagined, all under the illusion of serving a greater cause.
To me, that episode — then and now — has always looked like a trap laid against PTI. Because the truth is, PTI has never been an anti-establishment, ideologically resistant party. It has always been a political movement seeking power through the system, not against it. And now, one man is carrying the weight of everyone’s sins — a burden born of naivety, impatience, and unchecked passion.
In the process, a profoundly human and religious issue — the suffering of Palestinians — has been turned into a domestic controversy. For the past week, Israel has all but disappeared from our headlines. Instead, mocking religious scholars and insulting religious parties have become trending topics on social media. This is the real tragedy — the most glaring proof of our intellectual weakness. The enemy has quietly faded into the background, while we shoot arrows of hatred at our own.
And so, every time the powers behind the curtain stage a new drama, PTI becomes the easiest target — a party so sincere, so romantic in its ideals, and yet so tragically easy to manipulate. When Hafiz Naeem finally spoke — criticizing the establishment, the government, and Israel alike — he added only one short line directed at Imran Khan:
“Why have you not condemned Israel’s atrocities?”
That single line, torn out of context, was enough to unleash a social media storm. Yet Hafiz Naeem’s question was rooted in principle: if PTI truly is the most popular party in Pakistan, should it not also be the loudest voice for the most oppressed people on earth — the Palestinians?
Sadly, many PTI supporters seem to value their political grievances more than the wounds of Gaza. They treat their leader’s silence as strategy, not failure. But if they could spend even thirty seconds living a Palestinian’s life, they might finally understand the magnitude of what’s at stake — and realize how easily we’ve been made to fight each other while the real enemy walks free.
