Providing security of life to its citizens is one of the primary responsibilities of all governments. Rehman Maliks advice to Sherry Rehman to leave the country if she wanted to remain alive comes therefore as a great shock. The statement would have been odd if given by any minister. That none other than the interior minister has issued the call is all the more reprehensible. One can understand that there is an attempt to create a mass frenzy by extremist elements in the country in the wake of the arrest of an Elite Force guard who killed the governor of Punjab. Instead of letting it spread, the mischief should have been nipped in the bud. It was the duty of the interior minister to put an end to provocations by immediately bringing those who had called on people to harm the head of the province to the law. That he failed to perform his duty brings no credit to him.
Sherry Rehman maintains that the present blasphemy law was formulated by a dictator who subsequently got it passed from the parliament and that the present parliament is within its right to make improvements in it so that it is not lent to any possible misuse. Some agree with her point of view, others dont. She is well within her constitutional rights to express this opinion. If anybody thinks she is breaking a law by expressing this view, the best way for him is to take recourse to the court instead of taking the law into his own hands. Unless the supremacy of the judiciary and the primacy of parliament are ensured, mobs will decide the issues in the streets, making parliament and the courts irrelevant. This must not be allowed as this happens only in failed states.
Rehman Maliks statement is bound to send highly negative signals inside and outside the country. It indicates a lack of nerve and will only hearten mobsters of all hues and colours. It amounts to encouragement to those who are trying to turn the wheel of history back. This statement indicates the PPP has gone back on its claims of being a progressive force and is unable to protect those opposed to extremism.
