LAHORE – The pot had been boiling for some time, and seething members of the right wing were often seen in front of the Governor’s House with their protests aimed at Salman Taseer. Meanwhile, Taseer would give no quarter in his opinion on the blasphemy laws and was ‘not scared of dying as death was not in his hands’.
This simmering pot ultimately boiled over when Taseer’s assassin, who was also his bodyguard and a member of the Punjab Police’s Elite Force, claimed that his disagreement with the governor over the blasphemy law led to the governor being murdered.
The matter worsened after Asiya was given the death sentence. Human rights activists raised a furor over this issue and demanded the law be repealed. As a reaction, Salman Taseer made a visit to the Sheikhupura Jail, where Asiya was held, and made a press statement that the blasphemy law was a ‘black law’ and should be repealed.
He also sent a request to the president that Asiya be set free. Once Taseer made these statements, the right wing groups reacted accordingly. Protests, shutter-down strikes and a general uproar led to the government of Pakistan announcing that the law would not be repealed, to appease the right-wingers. Taseer denounced hardliners and maintained that Islam was a religion of peace and most of all, forgiveness. In one of his speeches, he said that if death was at his doorstep, he would accept it because death was in the hands of God only and no one could fight it.
The ‘Wajib-ul-Qatal’ fatwa against Taseer had come from Peer Afzal Qadri, of the Barelvi school of thought. He was from the Almi Tanzeem-e-Ehl-e-Sunnat and was one of the first to lead a demonstration in front of the Lahore Press Club. While normally the Barelvi school of thought professes to be against terrorism, this fatwa followed by a murder is ominous. Other groups which protested in front of the Governor’s House included Tahafaz-e-Namoos-e-Risaalat Mahaz (TNRM), Jamat-ud-Dawa and its 25-party alliance called Tehreek-e-Hurmat-Rasul with Jamat-e-Islami’s 12-party alliance, Tahafuz-e-Tehreek-e-Namoos-e-Risalat.
TNRM had also protested some time ago before the Asiya case was publicized. Sunni Tehreek Council and TNRM had also staged sit-ins during the shutter-down strike in Lahore, and while they did not give a fatwa, they often spoke of Taseer in harsh words.
Taseer’s stance ; Why did you take up Aasiya Bibi’s case?
Taseer:
Aasiya Bibi’s case is particularly relevant. She is a woman who has been incarcerated for a year-and-a half on a charge trumped up against her five days after an incident where people who gave evidence against her were not even present. So this is a blatant violation against a member of a minority community. I, like a lot of right-minded people, was outraged, and all I did was to show my solidarity. It is the first time in the history of the Punjab that a governor has gone inside a district jail, held a press conference and stated clearly that this is a blatant miscarriage of justice and that the sentence that has been passed is cruel and inhumane. I wanted to take a mercy petition to the president, and he agreed, saying he would pardon Aasiya Bibi if there had indeed been a miscarriage of justice.
Interview with Newsline, Printed 23 December 2010
