THE OUTRAGEOUS murder of Salman Taseer, the courageous and outspoken governor of Punjab and a rare campaigner against religious intolerance, is a real tragedy for Pakistan. Just days from the anniversary of the 2007 killing of Benazir Bhutto, the politics of assassination have again struck a blow against the country’s precarious democracy and the waning ideal of the tolerant, pluralist state envisaged in 1947 by founder Muhammad ali Jinnah.
The killing will intensify the real sense of fear of religious extremists pervading Pakistan society which has in recent times largely silenced what correspondent Declan Walsh calls “the endangered species” of liberals and which made Taseer so exceptional and important.
A businessman and newspaper owner, Taseer was a key figure in the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and close to President Asif Ali Zardari. He had been imprisoned in the 1980s under military dictator General Mohammad Zia ul-Haq for his opposition to religious laws, particularly the blasphemy legislation inherited from British rule and to which Zia added a death penalty. The issue is so toxic, however, that even his ostensibly secularist PPP is distancing itself from calls for repeal of the widely misused act.
Taseer recently visited and campaigned in defence of Christian mother of four Aasia Bibi, sentenced in November to death for allegedly insulting Islam during a row with neighbours. Whether or not her appeal succeeds, her life must now be in ever greater danger – even in prison – and the authorities must see to it she is properly protected. Shortly after Taseer’s visit, an Islamist mob rioted outside the governor’s house in Lahore, burning his effigy and calling for his death. His stand had placed him firmly in the firing line, a reality he acknowledged prophetically a few days ago. “I was under huge pressure,” he tweeted, “2 cow down b4 rightest [sic] pressure on blasphemy. Refused. Even if I’m the last man standing.”
His assassin, Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, a 26-year-old elite-force bodyguard who surrendered immediately, has boasted of his righteous act and been feted by supporters in court. Opposition politicians have been disgracefully silent while religious party leaders have defended the killing. Munawar Hasan, head of Jamaat-e-Islami, one of the two largest, insists “Salman Taseer was himself responsible for his killing. Any Muslim worth the name could not tolerate blasphemy of the Prophet, as had been proved by this incident”.
Qadri’s role has also fuelled unanswered concerns about whether he was part of a wider conspiracy and the widespread extremist infiltration of the police and military – his supervisor had called for his removal from bodyguard duty because of his views, and colleagues seemed notably slow to respond to the shooting.
Above all the killing exposes once again the extent to which Pakistan society is racked by an internal existential struggle between an aggressive form of Islamism and the beleaguered pluralism of an increasingly silenced majority. Its outcome is far from decided.