Yours truly had pleaded in this very space just a fortnight ago to let Salmaan Taseer, one of the few colourful characters left in Pakistans rather opaque midst, be. The context then was the theatre of the absurd surrounding his controversial disappearance without allegedly informing the provincial government about which his political nemeses and a major media group made such a song and dance.
The issue was blown out of proportion and merely used to score Brownie points, and did not merit the seriousness feigned by the slain Punjab governors detractors. The shocking manner of Taseers murder is probably, still within the realm of the ultimate fear for someone in his position: being taken out by the very people sworn to protect.
Chilling comparisons have been made with how former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhis trusted bodyguards brutally, cut her life short in 1984 but theres a major difference. While Satwant Singh and Beant Singh pumped 33 bullets into Nehrus daughter as retribution for Operation Bluestar in the Golden Temple that led to the killing of revered Sikh leaders and dozens of their rank and file, Taseer was the recipient of completely misguided vengeance.
Far from causing any harm, the Punjab governor was championing the cause of those who otherwise had no access to justice. It is heart-rending to have to come to terms with the reality that one of few faces of moderation, who moved beyond the courage of their conviction in the mad house of todays Pakistan to actively pursue change in the blasphemy law is no more. To think that Taseer paid with his life for merely campaigning to stop the abuse of the said law is to reach the lowest depth of inhumanity.
Removed from the debate surrounding serious breach of security and the dangerous infiltration of fanatics in the detail, you have to wonder at the temerity of the murderer, who did what he did simply because he had no control over his misplaced emotion. It is easy of course, to suggest as every Tom, Dick and Harry amongst even the liberals has been religiously doing in the wake of the heinous crime that Taseer was ultimately, himself to blame for his fate. The implication is that he should have been watchful with his tongue.
But then, thats what almost everyone in position of authority in this Godforsaken country is doing exactly and thereby ceding ground to an unjust order. Long after the skies of Bahawalpur took care of the dictator, who wrought the trauma this nations hapless minority citizens continue to suffer to this day many by paying with their lives criminal silence pervades the land. Sherry Rehman is a rare exception amongst this countrys legislators, who had the nerve to challenge the discrimination and table a bill to undo the law.
To Pakistan Peoples Partys eternal shame, it not only abandoned its stalwarts in the case of Sherry, to her devices, given that she no longer benefits from official patronage after resigning in 2009 as federal information minister over a matter of principle but also the cause itself. After an advance countrywide shutter down to protest against any change in the blasphemy law at yearend clearly, a forced measure on the part of Islamists where scared shopkeepers had little choice but to be bullied into submission if only to avert vandalism of their business places the PPP government surrendered officially, saying it had no plans to amend the law.
Eventually, Sherry was also forced to withdraw the bill she had tabled. All along, the prime minister and the bunkered president have been conspicuous by their silence over an issue their party has always championed unreservedly. All this points to an abject surrender a disturbing abdication of responsibility on the part of an elected government, constitutionally bound to defend the life and property of its citizens.
For Pakistan to have even a sneaking chance to counter the insane Mumtaz Qadri mindset, it is absolutely essential for the PPP, of all the liberal forces, to lead the fight back. One would have thought that any vacillation on this score would have been nipped in the bud after the literal blood sacrifice rendered by Benazir Bhutto three years ago. The PPP is making an epic blunder by cowering before these obscurantist forces in its frenzied ambition to retain power.
With the sickening celebration of Taseers horrifying murder by lawyers literally, falling over each other to defend the murderer, even garlanding him, and legion of doctrinaire Facebookers setting up dedicated sites to glorify the assassin, the need to get our act together was never more acute. Power by its very nature is a transitory thing. The PPP must realize this is a fight for our childrens future and the country where they live. Please dont let in Darth Vader.
The writer is a newspaper editor and can be reached at [email protected]
