Remembering Salmaan Taseer

Three years and the killer of Salmaan Taseer is still alive and kicking, in spite of living behind bars. The irony is that a self-confessed murderer cannot be punished for the sin he owns. The judiciary is hamstrung to the narrow blasphemy narrative that has done more injustice than any other law. Innocent people have been made victims of the law that has been widely used to settle personal vendettas and vested interests. The incremental space given to the law since Ziaul Haq’s era made it a golden opportunity for exploitation by the fundamentalists. Aasia bibi, whose case Salmaan Taseer took up as the Governor Punjab is someone still going through the ordeal of jail because our law is deaf and dumb in the face of blasphemy charges. Anyone can put an allegation on someone, better still if accompanied by a vigilante mob, and a person is held as a blasphemer. Thinking enough is enough, Salmaan Taseer wanted this man-made law amended so that it punished false accusers, whose tribe is growing. This just demand was twisted in such a way that Salmaan Taseer himself was painted as a blasphemer, especially by some benighted sections of the media. The entire right-wing, supported by hardline clerics, wanted the Governor killed. While this clamour dominated the reactionary sections of the media, the leadership of the PPP failed to come to his support. This silence helped the cause of the blinkered reactionaries who eventually succeeded in getting Salman killed in broad daylight by his own bodyguard, Mumtaz Qadri, in cowardly fashion. The self-confessed murderer was hailed by our right wing lawyers, so much so that a former Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court became his defence lawyer.

The case is straightforward, but is hanging in the Islamabad High Court. Salmaan died serving the cause of enlightened humanity. The ordeal for his family did not end there. They had to pay another bitter price when their son Shahbaz was abducted and is still missing. Amidst all this tragedy there is a culpable silence from political and civil society, ritualistic remembrances on his death anniversary aside.