Moderate Pakistani Governor Assassinated by Bodyguard

Salman Taseer was the governor of the Pakistani province of Punjab, the most populous and important in the nation. He was a voice of tolerance and a proponent of civil liberties in a country where such are too few on the ground. Yesterday, he was assassinated by his own bodyguard who shot him in the back 27 times with an AK-47. The guard immediately surrendered and stated that he had assassinated Mr. Taseer because the governor wanted to repeal Pakistan's blasphemy laws. In the battle against Fascislam, one no longer wonders on which side Pakistan's security community stands. The foreign aid flow needs to stop until the government purges the military and security forces of such people. It won't, however, and Mr. Taseer's martyrdom in the cause of human rights will not be the last in that sad country.

The blasphemy laws in Pakistan call for the punishment of anyone judged to have insulted Mohamed -- punishment can range from a fine to execution. Introduced by the dictator Zia ul-Haq, this is often used in various personal vendettas. The most celebrated case recently focuses on Asia Bibi, a Christian. Saroop Ijaz, a Pakistani lawyer and human rights activist wrote in this morning's Los Angeles Times that the "mother of five and a farmhand, was asked to fetch water. She complied, but some of her Muslim co-workers refused to drink the water, as Bibi is a Christian and considered 'unclean' by them. Arguments ensued, resulting in some co-workers complaining to a local cleric's wife that Bibi had made derogatory comments about the prophet Muhammad. A mob reportedly stormed her house, assaulting Bibi and her family." And she is the one on trial for her life.

This being Pakistan, there is a large body of opinion that holds the assassination to be part of a conspiracy, and it includes cabinet level politicians. "The real conspiracy behind his murder needs to be unveiled," said the, Pakistani Law Minister, Babar Awan. Yet conspiracies are unnecessary where people agree on their interests; they will act in concert without plotting. That is why more than 6,000 people have died at the hands of militants in both 2009 and 2010.

The assassin, Mumtaz Qadri, is not a disgruntled headcase like Lee Harvey Oswald. Instead, he is a member of Punjab province's elite police force. The army, police and security services are full of Fascislamists. "We've been thinking we could root out the extremism in our country, but this assassination makes people fear it may not be true, because it shows how deeply embedded the extremists are" in Pakistan, said Zafar Moin Nasser, research director at the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics in Islamabad.

The people of Pakistan deserve better. They deserve a country that is confident of its place in the world because it is free, because its people are well-educated and because its culture is flourishing. Simply put, they deserve what everyone else deserves. But the grip of the radical anti-humanists is too tight for that to occur. Mr Taseer recently told Britain's The Independent that he was not bothered by death threats, "Who the hell are these illiterate maulvis [preachers] to decide to whether I'm a Muslim or not?" Sadly, they are the people prepared not to reason, not to persuade, but to murder as a way of proving their case.

America and its allies in the fight against Fascislam are unwittingly supporting this by the huge amount of aid given to the Pakistani security forces. Much of it is misused, and no doubt some of it winds up in the hands of the opposition. It is painful to think that the bullets that killed Mr. Taseer may have been paid for with American aid. Ending that aid until the Pakistani government acts forcefully against the fifth column it faces is a necessary step toward Pakistan realizing its potential.

© Copyright 2011 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.

Kensington Review Home