Salmaan Taseers ghastly murder by the guard assigned to him by the administration of the province he headed as its governor has raised a number of important questions. A chill must have passed though the spines of the vast array of VVIP s and lesser real or self-styled VIPs who take pride in the state appointed posse they prefer to move with, even though they arent necessarily under threat.
Shahbaz Sharif created the Elite Force, during his last stint as chief minister of Punjab, to which the fundamentalist guard Mumtaz Qadri belonged. Over the years, it has literally become the force to guard the elite.
The brave man who gave his life for a principle is being unfairly accused by a large section of the religious right, including the Amir of the Jamaat Syed Munawwar Hasan, as a blasphemer. All Salmaan was guilty of was to demand amending a man-made law to obviate the possibility of it being misused, albeit in his usual acerbic style.
The fundamental question that the sad incident however has raised is that if the security forces have been infiltrated by extreme religious elements to the extent that they can kill those they are supposed to guard with impunity, then who is really safe from the tentacles of the extremists? How safe and secure can an ordinary man feel in this environment?
A day after the assassination, this paper carried a survey carried out by the Foreign Policy magazine declaring Pakistan as the greatest threat to the West and the likely possibility of its nukes ending up in terrorist hands. It also termed that the worlds most dangerous terrorist was not Osama bin Laden but the terrorist whose actions precipitate a war between India and Pakistan as a result of Mumbai II.
All this will be dismissed as Western paranoia and another excuse to build a case against Islamabad as being incapable of safeguarding its nuclear assets. But the Salmaan Taseer incident has demonstrated that the long arm of the extremists has infiltrated our state apparatus much more invasively than we are willing to acknowledge.
This gives grist to the Indian propaganda that Pakistan is the most dangerous place on the planet and hence the West should be cautious in dealing with it. A weak-kneed approach, lack of commitment on the part of our security apparatus and the absence of political will amongst the ruling elite has rendered the task of screening of such elements virtually impossible.
Questions have been raised ipso facto: why was the assassin Mumtaz placed on duty with the late Mr. Taseer on his specific request; what was a man with such a back ground doing in the Elite force in the first place and whether there was a conspiracy behind assigning him? Answers to these vital questions are not forthcoming as yet, but they are bound to crop up during the course of the inquiry.
The sad part of the whole incident is the manner in which the PPP has politicised the death of its stalwart. The jiyalas as if waiting for Taseer to be buried, suddenly changed gears and started to declare his murder a political conspiracy to drive a wedge between the religious parties and the PPP.
They have taken the easy and less hazardous route of political expediency by obliquely blaming the Punjab government being part of the yet imaginary conspiracy. What could be expected from a party that has as yet shown a criminal lack of interest in nabbing the murderers of it Co-chairperson Benazir Bhutto, thanks to whom they are in power today.
The Punjab government has also been caught with its pants down in the crisis. The PML(N) leadership remaining away from the funeral, burial and receiving of Taseers body when it arrived from Islamabad betrays a crass indifference on its part. Staying away on the advice of senior minister Raja Riaz is a lame excuse.
Unfortunately, despite protestations to the contrary, Mian Nawaz Sharif and his brother have not been able to outgrow their distaste for the PPP. In fact, they assume that the only way to maintain their vote bank is to pander to right-wing lobbies.
A stony silence has been maintained on the act of a member of the Punjab Elite force. The manner in which he is being portrayed as a hero by certain elements of society including a number of lawyers should have been condemned by all political elements that believe in a pluralistic society. Ch Shujaat should be commended for at least declaring that the blasphemy law should be reexamined to obviate possibility of misuse.
The manner in which the assassin is being treated, garlanded and photographed speaks volumes about the lenient attitude of the authorities responsible for his handling. The manner in which the media is covering him making victory signs, perhaps, is a deliberate attempt to portray him as a hero.
Whether there was a wider conspiracy behind Malik Mumtaz Qadri assassinating Taseer or it was the lone act of a zealot is yet to be determined. Similarly, the question that the slow reaction, or rather the lack of it, was a major security lapse and why this lapse took place remains unanswered. But this definitely brings the recruiting, training and screening process of our security personnel into sharp focus.
To blackball anyone from the security apparatus sporting a beard or saying his prayers would be a worse form of McCarthyism,-unnecessary and undesirable in our social milieu. However, psychological profiling on a more professional basis should be an option worth examining.
But more important than that is for the political forces, the academia and the civil society to take stock of the direction the country is heading towards. For that to happen, a political will and a change of heart is needed; that is unfortunately lacking amongst a large swath of our political elite.
There are honourable exceptions, especially among some parties belonging to the smaller provinces. But as far as Punjab and most mainstream parties are concerned, timidity and capitulation rule the roost. Taseer was an exception. And he paid the price for it with his life.
The writer is Editor, Pakistan Today.