This post is based on an imaginary scenario.
Imagine Pakistan was a very different place. Imagine that it had politicians (not all, just a few, maybe one or two in government and one or two in opposition) who actually cared for Pakistan and made decisions based on what would be good for the country instead of just useful to their own hold on power.
I have probably already lost half of you, but let me keep going anyhow.
Imagine, what might happen in such a Pakistan in response to the brutal murder of Salman Taseer by the evil Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri?
What might the government do if it were really and truly serious about giving justice to Salman Taseer and rolling back the intolerance and extremism that gunned him down?
Let me suggest five things that would happen if Pakistan was, indeed, a functional state and society.
Instead of the emotional slogans, false tears, and petty political point-scoring that we are now seeing, here are a few things that might have happened if Pakistan was the place we all want it to be, but is not (starting from the easiest and moving to the most important):
- The immediate culprit – Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri – would be immediately and swiftly (that is critical) tried in a court of law and given the full punishment under the law. Justice which is transparent, fair, and speedy should be done, and seen to be done.
- All opportunities to turn the murderer into a public hero would be denied to him and his ‘fans.’ This means, no access to media, no opportunities to be garlanded, no occasions to shout slogans to TV cameras, etc. There are lots of simple means to do so and the media would be banned – for national sanity reasons – from reporting directly on his, running footage of him, or in any way projecting him. The purpose would be not to restrict information, but to resist misinformation on a pending case.
- Immediate investigation would be undertaken against all who had instigated violence and murder, issued fatwas, or in any ways created the inducement or provided encouragement to commit violence against Salman Taseer or others in relation to the blasphemy issue. This would certainly include, at a minimum, those evil jokers who were publicly offering money for murder but would also include an immediate and swift investigation into those on the media who had contributed to instigation and hysteria and inflamed emotions with violent rhetoric and also those political or public figures (including so-called ‘ulemas‘) who may have directly instigated violence in the name of this issue at any public rally. These investigations would swiftly lead to arrests, trials, and full punishment under incitement to violence laws.
- Anyone justifying murder, glorifying the murderer, or creating public incitement on this issue in the aftermath of the murder would be swiftly arrested, tried and given full punishment under the law. This could require large number of arrests to crush illegal rallies, etc., and the government would be ready to take that principled stand. This would also include full legal action against any media person using the media to justify the breaking of the law or the act of murder (for example, by arguing – directly or indirectly – that the murder of Salman Taseer was justified).
- The government would immediately move to repeal, or at least review the Blasphemy law itself and swiftly bring needed changes to it so that its spirit is not misused or made subject to vigilantism. This would be the least that could be done to honor the memory of Salman Taseer.
None of these would be easy to do, even in a saner Pakistan. But ‘difficult’ is never an excuse not to do what is ultimately ‘right.’
I do not really expect our current political leaders to do the right thing, on this issue or any other; or to give justice to Salman Taseer, or me. But at least I can try to push the conversation away from the inanities I hear on the TV and read in newspapers and towards a sense of what the ‘right’ thing to do would be, even if in an imaginary Pakistan.
Nice post..
Sanity should have prevailed pre and now post the governer’s killing. Dialogue is the key to every issue; the government should not be a puppet to everything said on media by this and that anchor or this and that leader or analyst, it should be firm in its implementation of rules and laws of the land and see to it that no one innocent gets implicated. Sad is the state of affairs. We need new, determined and saner people running the government.
To every retard supporting the animal qadri,
Salman Taseer DID NOT DESERVE TO DIE! Who cares if he drank heavily or womanized etc – how does it make a difference to your life or the lives of thousands of retarded people supporting his psychotic assassin? If you really believe that there is a god then god would have dealt with his vices. Who the hell are you to judge him and take the law in our hands. SHAME ON YOU for justifying a murderers actions, especially the murderer of a decent man who was killed for supporting a poor, helpless women, and for being a rare rational voice in a country of religious maniacs. Shame on you!
@Monano.
To help me better understand your comment, please answer three things:
1. Can you please list all the gunnah i kabeera and gunnah i sagheera of your cousin.
2. Why should anyone believe these stories of yours from an unnamed cousin, unverified, merely gheebat and tuhmat to malign a dead man?
3. Even if true. Why is any of that a reason to kill the man and why are you celebrating his death?
My cousin was once a top man in one of Salman Taseer’s firms. He was shocked to learn that Taseer was appointed as Governor because, according to him, Taseer had committed all types of Gunah-i-Kabeerah multiple number of times. It is now indeed only Allah’s jurisdiction to decide upon his eternal fate, but with such character, his appointment to a top Govt. position would have been questionable even in the most liberal countries. (Remember Monica Lewinski case?)
Another Incident which took away all my respect for Taseer was when his mother died. He was sidelined from politics in those days. At the funeral time, he was drinking heavily. When it was time to leave for funeral, some of his companions asked him to get up. He not only refused but asked everyone to remain seated as he had already ordered his domestic servants to “do the formalities”.
These are the reasons why I say that he did not deserve to be projected as martyr (which liberal extremists are doing).