The wanton assassination of Salmaan Taseer, Governor of Punjab, could be a tragic watershed in the history of Pakistan as it crumbles in the face of a severe onslaught by extremist religious ideology and passions. The tragedy is that some elements of the state are co-sponsors while others are hopeless accessories after the fact.
Mr Taseer opined that the blasphemy law should be amended to ensure that mischief mongers could not exploit it for mundane ends. He wasn’t alone in advocating this line of action. Indeed, quite apart from the moderate silent majority, even the most rigid mainstream defenders of the blasphemy law admit that procedural changes can improve its efficacy and fairness. But the media and mullahs distorted the picture and painted him as an apostate. The mullahs put head money on him, the media frenetically drummed up their demands, and the state condoned it all.
Mr Taseer was moved by the plight of Aasia Bibi, a poor Christian woman, who had been awarded the death sentence by a court for blaspheming against Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). The facts suggested there had been a miscarriage of justice, a fairly frequent occurrence in such passionately charged cases. So he moved the President of Pakistan to commute her death sentence. But, under pressure from religious extremists, the Lahore High Court put a spoke in the wheels of the government by signaling its displeasure. As the media whipped up the chorus of extremist voices arrayed against the Governor, the President balked and the Prime Minister retreated shamelessly: “This is the Governor’s personal point of view, I am a Syed, my government has no intention to dilute the blasphemy law”, declared Mr Yusuf Raza Gilani self-righteously. Isolated and condemned, Mr Taseer became a sitting duck for the extremists.
The killer, Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, an Elite Force commando, brazenly maneuvered with police officials to join Mr Taseer’s security detail on the ill-fated day. This, despite a forceful note on file by the Regional Police Officer in 2008 that Qadri should be removed from VIP security duty because of his extremist religious views. He took his commando colleagues into confidence and they stood by passively as he pumped 26 bullets into his target. There has not been a more outrageous lapse on the part of the police than this in Pakistan’s history.
The political parties showed their pathetic colours after the assassination. Not a single politician from the ruling party or opposition had the guts to unequivocally condemn the passion behind the killing. Indeed, the PPP turned the state tragedy into a political conspiracy against the party and democracy. The opposition that routinely thunders against real and imagined excesses barely managed to mutter a word or two about the “unfortunate” incident. It was left to a group of Islamabad lawyers – part of the famed “lawyers’ movement” – to shower rose petals on the assassin when he was brought to court to be remanded to the police. Civil society – that wonderfully elusive term denoting the conscience of society – could muster only a couple of hundred protestors the day after in contrast to the thousands of internet users who declared Qadri a hero on Facebook!
The police, political parties, parliaments, the bar and bench have singly and collectively succumbed to the wave of religious extremism threatening to engulf Pakistan. The terrorists are few but the extremists are many. This is a recipe for more terrorism, not less. The state is supposed to have an anti-terrorist policy practiced by the security agencies but there is no sign of any anti-extremism policy articulated by the government. Our textbooks and media are awash with extremist notions and violent ideas. Our public and parliaments are spilling over with primitive mindsets. Any person can now stand up and take the law into his own hands on the basis of his religious belief and passion, making a mockery of the state’s claim that, let alone an individual, even religious parties or groups cannot wage jihad without the state’s consent or sanction.
The most frightening part of this episode is the way in which the forces of religious extremism were whipped into frenzy by certain banned jihadi lashkars and organizations which retain strategic links with the ubiquitous “agencies” of the state. No less ominous is the banding together of the Barelvis, who represent the majority soft version of Islam, with the hardline Ahle-Hadith and Deobandi strains, to create a wave of religious resistance to moderation and integration. It is as though a sinister message is being signaled to all at home and abroad: democracy doesn’t work, mainstream parties are a curse we cannot afford, pure religious ideology is the fountain of Pakistani rejuvenation and all those who disagree will be eliminated.
We reap what we sow. The human tragedy that is in the offing for democrats and moderates will be nothing compared to the collapse of the economy and the misery of tens of millions of the silent majority if extremist ideology and religious passion seize control of Pakistan. Mark our words: the Pakistan army, which claims to be a saviour of the last resort, will be the first to bear the brunt of the coming onslaught and it will pay the highest price.