IT is time Pakistani government realized that the growing hold of radicals is posing a grave threat to Islamabad’s existence, peace and stability.
Professor Abdul Ghani Bhat recently confessed in a seminar that the former Mirwaiz, Abdul Ghani lone and other leading lights of J&K were killed not by the security forces but “by our own people”. This is the closest that he has come to admitting that Hurriyat has been living a lie all along. There goes a saying that terrorism is a tiger that consumes its own riders. But it seems that Pakistan has been slow in taking lessons from it. As a country that has patronized extremism for too long it is itself suffering from its ill effects and faces the danger of self destruction. Mounting the tiger of Islamic fundamentalism has created an explosive situation for the nation where bigotry continues to thrive. Therefore, it is not at all surprising that a courageous voice of secularism was silenced with the brutal killing of the governor of Punjab in Pakistan, Salman Taseer.
The assassination of Salman Taseer underlines the troubling state of affairs in Pakistan. That he was gunned down by his own security guard for supporting Aasia Bibi, a Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy, has shocked the civilized world. It needs no reiteration that Pakistan has a violent history as the country has been under military dictatorships and martial law. There is no room for free speech and secular voices in Pakistan. Over the years, this nation has yielded far too much space to fundamentalist parties, sympathizers of Taliban, Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups with the result that a blizzard of bigotry is sweeping across it. Human rights, freedom and dignity have been and remain a casualty in the country. Salman Taseer was a moderate opposed to his country’s draconian laws and was brutally murdered precisely for that reason.
The first high profile killing after the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto a little over three years ago has brought into sharp focus the religious intolerance that has reached a new peak so much so that it is leading to death and destruction. Those who dare talk reason are finding a mere survival a challenge. The freedom with which terrorists go about bombing government institutions and threatening the voices of sanity proves that complete Talibanisation of Pakistan is no longer a distant possibility. The harsh reality is that with extremists targeting minorities and liberals, moderate voices have been reduced to a minuscule minority.
The killing of the Punjab governor raises profound concerns about the growing militant infiltration of security forces, a weak civilian government and an army hell bent on using radical Islam as an instrument of its long standing policy. It is obvious that the ISI and not the government control terrorism. The political leadership continues to be hostage to the military. These assassinations aimed at stifling progressive elements point to the deepening crisis in the nation as well as ineffectiveness of the Pakistani state. General Musharraf after coming to power talked of “moderation” in the first flush of excitement and declared that his role model would be Turkey’s Mustafa Ataturk. But widespread criticism of his “liberalism” made him to beat a hasty retreat. In the same view, the Pakistan government has remained a mute spectator instead of firmly dealing with fundamentalists who pose a grave threat to the peace and stability of the nation. The change in tone by the Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani after a successful strike by the right wing parties is an indicator of the growing hold of radicals in a state ruled by orthodoxy. The PPP ministers who do not dare to cross Islamist’s path have also spoken in favor of the blasphemy law. Even Mr. Nawaz Sharif has gone on record to say that Taseer should have spoken more cautiously and with balance.
The governor’s death is not the only violent manifestation of the complex socio-political conditions that exist in Pakistan. This is actually in line with similar other despicable killings of other secular critics of blasphemy law. According to the data compiled by the National Commission for Justice and Peace, a local NGO, the first high profile killing took place in 1997 when Lahore High Court Judge Arif Bhatti acquitted two Christians accused of blasphemy. He was shot dead while leaving court. Many accused of the law have been murdered in automobiles and also by mobs. Some others have been killed by police, as in the case of Salman Taseer. Sherry Rehman, the well known Pakistani human rights activist is also on the hit list of Pakistan’ radical elements for introducing a bill in National Assembly proposing amendments to the blasphemy laws. Though the government has increased her security, the question is can it protect her when it could not do so in the case of case of Salman Taseer?
What is more shocking is that fanatics have hailed the act as is evident from the support, Taseer’s killer got from some sections of Pakistani society. Many Pakistanis celebrated it and showered praises and congratulations on the murderer. Within hours of Taseer’s death, a face book page was created for the fans of the killer. One may ask which civilized nation glorifies assassins.
Before it is too late, Pakistan needs to think of improving its sagging image by shunning aiding and abet religious terrorism. The recent bizarre event is a sharp reminder of the urgency with which the menace of extremism needs to be countered. It is heartening to see that there are still people in Pakistan who want to progress like the rest of the world. So the country needs to shun militancy and focus on socio-economic development. More than anything else, Islamabad needs to come to grips with the truth that it does not pay to fiddle with terror.