My recent article for Viewpoint Online, published Jan 7, 2012:

Salmaan Taseer: The political context of a ‘religious’ assassination

Enforce rule of law, expose hypocrisy of the Taliban mentality

Just over a year ago, Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer was assassinated in the most cowardly manner by a government-assigned security guard. Mumtaz Qadri, a member of the Punjab Elite Force assigned to protect the Governor, pumped 27 bullets into his victim’s back as he headed to his car on the afternoon of January 4, 2011.

The sensational murder was no spontaneous act by an enraged fanatic. It was a well-thought out, cold-blooded plan. Was the executor acting alone, motivated only by ‘religious fervour’ as projected, or is there more to the issue than meets the eye? And even if his act was purely altruistic, should the law of the land not be applied to punish him?

The Governor was already a target of the ‘hate-filled organisations’ as he termed them, well before they saw an opportunity to (ab)use the ‘blasphemy law’ to unite their own until then divided ranks. For this, they needed a target. The opportunity arrived when a trial court sentenced a Christian woman, Aasia Bibi, to death on Nov 8, 2010, for ‘blasphemy’.

A few facts to put this situation in context:

• The ‘religious parties’, historically divided amongst themselves, have never made any significant headway in electoral politics in Pakistan. A democratic dispensation does not suit them.
• Although Pakistan under Gen. Musharraf officially cut ties with the Taliban regime in Afghanistan after 9/11 (reluctantly, the last country to do), it continued to allow the ‘home grown jihadis’ to operate, seeing them as useful to keep the fire smouldering in Indian administered Kashmir.
• In Feb 2008, a democratically elected government replaced Gen. Musharraf’s military regime. The new government eschewed the earlier policy of using non-state actors to achieve its foreign policy objectives – but the security establishment remained wedded to the outdated paradigm of ‘strategic’ depth (i.e. Pakistan’s continued influence in Afghanistan because of a perceived threat from India).

What does all this have to do with Salmaan Taseer and the politics behind his assassination?

Everything. The mindset and political ideology disguised in the rhetoric of religion is furthered by a security establishment that sees its duty as being to protect not just Pakistan’s physical frontiers but also its ‘ideology’, developed along conservative religious lines since the 1965 war with India. This ideology was strengthened during the Afghan war of the 1980s, when a national war of liberation was converted into a ‘holy war’ (as Dr. Eqbal Ahmad pointed out in his talk on ‘Terrorism, theirs and ours’, 1998).

Pakistan’s ‘religious’ organisations flourished and gained strength with Saudi and American backing during the Zia years (1977-1988). They were allowed to function freely during the military-dominated ‘musical chairs’ years in which no government could complete its tenure (1988-1999). As mentioned above, they also had a free rein during the Musharraf years (1999-2008) even after 9/11.

Since the end of the first Afghan war, these organisations have been targeting and killing religious minorities and progressive minded people in Pakistan. The genie released during the Zia years and nurtured under Musharraf was not going to go tamely back into the bottle.

Governor Taseer was already in their sights for his outspoken and rational views on religion and human rights. He had no qualms naming the organisations he suspected to be behind the May 2010 massacre of worshippers in an Ahmedi mosque in Lahore, where over 80 people were killed and scores of others injured.

“These hate-filled organisations – Sipah-e-Sahaba, (Lashkar-e-) Jhangvi — they all have same ideology – Taliban, Al Qaeda…,” he said during his condolence visit.

“They should be prosecuted in the courts,” he said. “Don’t let them off. There should be zero tolerance towards them. No political alliance is possible with these organisations, you can’t go around having them at your political meetings, the Punjab government should prosecute them”.

Five months later the religious parties found a way to unite their ranks by conflating the ‘blasphemy’ issue with the issue of the ‘honour of the Prophet’ (peace be upon Him), when there were protests against the death sentence of Aasia Bibi. The ‘religious’ organisations came out in full force calling for her death because she had allegedly said something derogatory against the Prophet (peace be upon Him).

For some years the ‘blasphemy’ issue had lain somewhat dormant. Now, after many years, a court handed down a death sentence for such a case. Protests against the sentence by human rights and Christian organisations led to counter protests by ‘Islamic’ groups that used the issue to build up their political strength.

The situation was reminiscent of the early 1990s when there was a surge of ‘blasphemy’ cases, and the first ‘blasphemy murder’ was committed. Between 1986, when the law came into effect, and 2010, 1,081 people were charged under it, including 138 Christians, 468 Muslims and 454 Ahmadis, according to the National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP). In all cases investigated by human rights groups, motivations for these cases have been invariably rooted in rivalries or disputes related to money, property or other jealousies.

The High Courts and the Supreme Court have so far not upheld any death sentence passed by a lower court, although several defendants have been extra-judicially killed after being accused of ‘blasphemy’. In the early 1990s this was the scenario:

The frenzy had been building up. Masked gunmen had opened fire after a court hearing in April 1994, wounding Salamat and killing Manzoor Masih, one of the co-accused in the blasphemy case. Glossy, full-colour stickers and posters cropped up all over Lahore, calling for “believers” to find and kill (Asma) Jahangir. In July, a mob outside the Lahore High Court attacked her car. Luckily, she was not in the vehicle but her driver was assaulted and the car smashed. It was a few days later that the letter vowing to hunt down and kill Jahangir was delivered to her office. (Zarteef Khan Afridi: The tribesman who showed the way)

There was no case registered against Governor Salmaan Taseer but the propaganda against him was amplified by the proliferation of the 24/7 television channels and social media. Taseer was publicly projected as a blasphemer. The aggression of one particularly vitriolic television talk show host led the Governor to rebuke her: “You are acting as I am guilty of blasphemy” (watch the programme here and here).

Sunni Tehrik and other extremist organisations held rallies and demonstrations against clemency for Aasia Bibi and against proposed procedural amendments to the ‘blasphemy laws’ that PPP MNA Sherry Rehman sought to table. Put on the defensive, the government as well as opposition figures who had agreed to support the amendments, backtracked, leaving Rehman high and dry, her life under threat.

Zaid Hamid, Hanif Qureshi and others: preachers of hate misleading youth

Mumtaz Qadri was a known figure at such rallies where emotions were being whipped up. He even recited ‘naat’ at some of them – like at this one, just three days before he killed the man he was supposed to be protecting.

These questions arise:

• How was a man who attended such gatherings, who was already known for his extremist views (he had been earlier removed from the Special Branch because he was perceived as a security threat) inducted into the Elite Force in the first place?
• How was such a man assigned guard duty to a high profile target like the Governor Punjab?
• Why did the other guards not expose Qadri or get him arrested when he told them what he was going to do and asked them not to open fire, as he would surrender (as he said in his confession after his arrest)?
• Given that the other guards did not open fire, according to standard operating procedures in VIP guard duty, why were they not charged as accomplices to the murder, even though Qadri said he was acting alone?

Citizens for Democracy (CFD), an umbrella group of several professional and activist organisations formed on Dec 19, 2010 in Karachi, raised such questions in its statement of January 7, 2011. “We reiterate our stand that no one has the right to take the law into their own hands and kill anyone, regardless of whether they are accused of blasphemy or any other crime,” said the statement, endorsed by nearly 70 organisations.

But such voices were drowned in the din of ‘religious’ righteousness.

Qadri’s fellow guards who were detained after Governor Taseer’s assassination were released without being charged, as was the cleric whose inflammatory sermon convinced Qadri to pull the trigger.

Salmaan Taseer’s murder was followed just two months later by the murder of the Minister for Minority Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti, a Christian by faith, who had also been outspoken about the blasphemy issue. No one has been arrested for that murder. The trial court judge who sentenced Mumtaz Qadri to death has fled Pakistan for his own safety. Qadri’s supporters are calling for the death sentence to be commuted, which is somewhat puzzling given that Qadri has stated he is willing to die for his faith and he believes he has done right.

Pakistan has many pressing problems – including the perennial ones of clean drinking water, healthcare, education, shelter and so on that directly impact the people. But on a larger level, there is also clearly an urgent need to enforce the rule of law — charge, try and prosecute the guilty without fear or favour — and to expose the hypocrisy of the Taliban mentality that is tearing the country apart.

  It was on this day last year, when a 26-year-old Mumtaz Qadri killed the very man he was meant to protect. Twenty seven bullets to silence Salman Taseer and to make sure that the debate on misuse of blasphemy laws is … Continue reading →

“Heroism is not the measure of how gloriously one fights and dies; rather, it is the value of the deeds and events which drove the person to their final end.”

A year has passed us by, and much has changed.

I don’t want to dwell too much on history, for much will be written about that today, capturing the bravery and martyrdom of Salmaan Taseer.

I rather want to focus on his legacy. The legacy which many seem to forget in favour of the more sensationalist diatribes that help get more hits, more clicks and more comments, particularly when the monologue gets sidetracked (on purpose) to focus more on Islam, Qadri, the black law and the pivot of it all: Asia Bibi, the Christian Pakistani woman who was jailed for allegedly blaspheming against the prophet of Islam, Muhammad (PBUH).

No, my focus is on the here and now.

On January 4, 2011, after that fateful moment, Pakistan woke up. It may have woken up in shock, like someone after a nightmare at 4 am, cold sweat dripping down their necks, but it woke up nonetheless.

You see, up until that moment everything related to minority issues and persecution was just a by-line. The news would once in a while show a new report here, a quote from a politician there, and that was it. Even poor Asia Bibi was sidelined, apart from a few months before Taseer’s assassination, when him and Sherry Rehman were more vocal in their support for her.

Enter the assassination, followed by Sherry’s own quieter stance, and Shahbaz Bhatti’s assassination some time later.

Suddenly, the rafters were flooded, the media up in arms and the general public finally no longer sitting on the fence. You were either vocally abhorring the blasphemy law, Asia Bibi’s detention, Taseer’s assassination and the state of minorities in Pakistan or you were waiting in line to shower Qadri with more rose petals.

The lines had finally been drawn.

Things have changed, whether we admit to it or not. Sure, we still aren’t out on the streets protesting in the thousands against Qadri or demanding Asia Bibi’s release. We aren’t bombarding the courts or the government with requests for leniency or release. We aren’t even coming out in force demanding the media in Pakistan cover this issue. All of the above has more to do with the liberal stance of voice over violence than mere complacency.

We ARE however very aware of the situation now. The media’s coverage of minority issues is now a daily feature, with every day bringing to light a new persecution, shedding new light over issues long forgotten.

If one reads the comments section of most major news portals in Pakistan, one feels a sense of joy that the youth of Pakistan are showing a rarely seen desire for justice and for the support of Taseer’s efforts to provide a voice for the persecuted. It begs a round of applause for those in the new generation who are proving to have more integrity flowing through their veins than those who are meant to teach them integrity in the first place. While the older folk go about sipping their teas and nodding their beards to the whispers of Qadri’s ghairat, the youth are thumping their chests at a new dawn of understanding and reconciliation.

Shahbaz Bhatti was further a victim of the brutality of some who use a few verses to turn what was one man’s guidance into a divine mandate, and closely following his assassination was the abduction of Taseer’s son, Shahbaz. All of us continue to pray for his safe return. Let no one be fooled by this blog of mine that I may be making light of such a henious crime. I am not, I continue to pray for Shahbaz’s safety. However I owe it to Mr. Taseer as a minority myself to give him the ode he deserves.

I would never have been active on Twitter if it wasn’t for Mr. Taseer. My voice would have been lost in the stream of the mundane, but his selfless act made me realise I am here on earth for a greater purpose. I have a voice. How I use it is what I learnt from him.

Pakistan is awake again. And we have only one man to thank for this. One man who woke us all up in his life and in his death.

Rest in peace, Salmaan Taseer. Pakistan is poorer for losing you. But at the same time, it is richer, because your legacy will reap a future of harmony. This, I truly believe.

The New Year signifies a rebirth of sorts. For some psychological reasons peculiar to homo-sapiens, January 1 seems to be like crossing some threshold in time and starting anew. For some however, the end of time as we perceive it to be had already come before. As life is created so is death met, in a timeless circle the true understanding of which is beyond most of us puny mortals. Our lot is merely to continue with our existence till the final whistle is blown.

And while the start of the new year is for contemplating what the future holds, perhaps sparing a thought for those Pakistanis who left us in 2011 will keep us focused on how important it is to exist in the moment.

It is an impossible task to cover in an article of this length even a fraction of those who left us. I will thus just set out those which carry some meaning for me on an individual basis.

The one to top the list is one of our men of iron, Nur Khan. An icon of professionalism and personal integrity, his life reads like a book on what leadership stands for. His personal courage was legendary. He flew, with the crew, a highly dangerous bomber mission over Kashmir, in 1965. This when he was an Air Marshall and could have afforded to sit in an arm chair without putting his life on the line in any manner whatsoever.

As chairman of PIA he single handedly confronted an armed hijacker, and disarmed him, in the process getting injured.

He excelled as a top class administrator. It was truly amazing the level of efficiency that he imbibed in whatever organization he headed. The Pakistan Air Force, Pakistan International Airlines, the hockey board and the cricket board all achieved unparallel successes under him.

We need to be thankful for men such as him. Firstly for contribution towards the building up of two of our most vital national assets, the air force and the airlines; and secondly for setting the highest of personal and professional standards.

For me, Salman Taseer’s assassination had all the hallmarks of a classic Greek tragedy. A flawed hero finally taking a stand on a worthy cause and being cut down by cruel fate. A larger than life figure, his ostentatious lifestyle was a bit of an embarrassment to us fellow chartered accountants. A hugely successful entrepreneur he built up a number of businesses. His one fatal flaw was his rather abrupt and curt communication style. Being a self made individual he had little respect for normal sensibilities. This proved to be his undoing in the end.

Had he understood, or bothered to understand, the sensitivities around the blasphemy law, he would have handled the whole issue in an entirely different manner. I have nothing but admiration and the deepest respect for the support that he extended to Aasia Bibi, the Christian woman sentenced to death on religious grounds. I just wish he had better understood the hate filled bigotry rampant in current Pakistani society.

If Pakistan is to nominate one all-round actor to the global hall of fame, it has to be Moin Akhtar. His repertoire of characters must be unmatched on an international level. A master of the under-delivery he was always uncomfortable participating in the rowdy farces which constitute most of the standard comedy fare dished out by the stage drama in Pakistan.

His incredible sense of timing and the professional etiquette that he always maintained made him a household favorite. The manner that he mimicked a number of the high and mighty is still a treat to watch. He was to Anwar Maqsood what Rafi Khawar (Nannha) was to Kamal Ahmed Rizvi. Kama Ahmad Rizvi never recovered from the loss of Nana, let’s see if Anwar Maqsood does.

That doyen of the qawwali fraternity, Maqbool Ahmed Sabri, was the more versatile brother of the famous Sabri duo. Unlike popular perception it was the Sabri brothers, and not the other legendary qawal Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, who made the art of qawali an internationally famous one. They performed at New York’s Carnegie hall in 1975.

They travelled extensively all over the world, and entranced thousands with their bewitching performances. It’s quite a sight seeing all those westerns just immersing themselves in the esoteric beat and performing dhamals. We should be grateful for the truly timeless classic qawali’s such as Tajdar-e-Haram, Madinae Chalaey Aou and Khawaja Ki Diwani that have been gifted to us

The list could go on, like that for every year past, present or in the future.

However I would like to end this article with a heartfelt tribute and thanks to all those unsung heroes who left us, while performing their sacred duty of defending our motherland. Most of us civilians, during our frequent piques, tend to view our armed and security forces as being, at best, something of an unnecessary evil.

‘Seven Hundred And Sixty’ of our brave men and women died in 2011 while performing their defense and security duties. Died, not because they had no choice. Died, because they were true to the oath they had taken. While for us the images of the armed and security forces revolve around plush offices, fancy cars and plots in the Defense, for the 99% of the people in those organizations reality is far different.

Reality consists of young widows, infants, children, sons, daughters, sisters, brothers, old parents and other loved ones bearing the cross of separation for their lifetimes.

A few measly rupees is not something which buys this loyalty considering the possible consequences. It is personal bravery and a sense of duty of the highest kind.

And then one does think of one’s own name in that list of have-been’s. Personally, what I would hope for is the smiles that the memories will hopefully elicit. The tears can follow later on at their own leisure…

By Taha Kehar:

The brutal assassination of Governor Salman Taseer bore testament to the belief that even a mere statement of opinion on a piece of legislation could produce drastic consequences. While this draconian image of democracy in Pakistan serves as a brisk reality check, it also shows how periodic the opposition to this heinous law has been. Such lapses in the freedom of expression remain a subject of grave concern.

Nearly a year later, civil society is expressing satisfaction at the ‘change’ triggered by the new-fangled politicking by Imran Khan. There is a strong desire to forget the past and chalk out a strategy to achieve prosperity. But can a country buckled under pressure generated by decades of mismanagement seek to look ahead without confronting the past?

The struggle against financial corruption may streamline the political process and restore democratic values, but without the freedom of expression it will only produce a sham democracy.

Salman Taseer’s assessment of the blasphemy laws as ‘black law’ was an opinion expressed with the intention of prompting judicial review. It was a weapon to protect the interests of a woman who was being victimised on religious grounds and offered a shrewd commentary on the importance of minority rights in Pakistan. But unfortunately, there is no clemency for those who dare to speak out against oppression.

On January 4^th, 2010, Salman Taseer was assassinated for voicing his opinion. The crime was a clear indication of how the law of vengeance can supersede the writ of the state. Religion was used as a pretext for people to take the law into their own hands. Ironically so, the decision which was prodded by the desire to remedy the supposed assault on the integrity of Islam led to more offences related to religion. Aasia Bibi remains in custody, awaiting death for a crime she may or may not have committed.

It is equally distressing to note that an incident which, until a year ago, received immense global attention, seems to have taken a backseat to other issues. This has further exacerbated the situation as the blasphemy laws continue to be used as a tool for exploitation.

A plausible remedy to this problem would be to show a more consistent approach towards addressing issues resulting from the misuse of the law. Sporadic attempts to consider amendments or the possible abolishment of the blasphemy law will only render it a plaything for the liberal sections of society.

However, such consistency can only be achieved when the bastions of this movement for change understand that obstructing the freedom of expression is a form of corruption that will thwart the essence of democracy.

Salmaan Taseer was tragically gunned down a year from today for speaking up against the country’s controversial Blasphemy Law. Newsline has compiled interviews with and articles on the former governor of Punjab as well as the Blasphemy Law debate.

Image via Wikipedia

Governor Salman Taseer died at the hands of a religious fanatic on January  4 last year. Fearlessly championing a deeply unpopular cause, this brave man had sought to revisit the country’s blasphemy law which, as he saw it,  was yet another means of intimidating Pakistan’s embattled religious  minorities. This law – which is unique in having death as the minimum  penalty – would have sent to the gallows an illiterate Christian peasant  woman, Aasia Bibi, who stood accused by her Muslim neighbours after a  noisy dispute. Taseer’s publically voiced concern for human life earned  him 26 high-velocity bullets from one of his security guards, Malik Mumtaz  Qadri. The other guards watched silently.

In the long sad year, more was to come. Justice Pervez Ali Shah, the brave judge who ultimately sentenced Taseer’s murderer in spite of receiving death threats, has fled the country. Aasia Bibi is rotting away in jail,  reportedly in solitary confinement and in acute psychological distress.  Shahbaz Taseer, the governor’s son, was abducted in late August – presumably by Qadri’s sympathizers. He remains untraceable. Shahbaz Bhatti, the only Christian member of the parliament and another vocal voice against the blasphemy law, was assassinated weeks later on March 2.

Political assassinations occur everywhere. But the Pakistani public  reaction to Taseer’s assassination horrified the world. As the news hit  the national media, spontaneous celebrations erupted in places; a murderous unrepentant mutineer had been instantly transformed into a national hero. Glib tongued television anchors sought to convince viewers that Taseer had brought ill unto himself. Religious political parties did not conceal their satisfaction, and the imam of Lahore’s Badshahi Masjid declined the government’s request to lead the funeral prayers. Rahman Malik, the interior minister, sought to curry favor with religious forces
by declaring that, if need be, he would “kill a blasphemer with my own hands”.

In psychological terms, the reaction of a substantial part of Pakistan’s lawyers’ community was still more disturbing. Once again, they made history. Earlier it had been for their Black Coat Revolution, apparently welcome evidence that Pakistani civil society was well and thriving. But this time it was for something far less positive. Television screens around the world showed the nauseating spectacle of hundreds of lawyers feting a murderer, showering rose petals upon him, and pledging to defend him pro-bono.

Another phalanx of lawyers, headed by Khawaja Asif, former Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court, rose up to constitute Qadri’s defence team. In his court testimony, a smugly defiant assassin declared that he had executed Allah’s will. Justice Asif agreed, saying that Qadri had “merely done his duty as a security guard”. He said it was actually Taseer who had broken the law of the land by attempting to defend a person convicted of blasphemy and, in doing so, had “hurt the feelings of crores of Muslims”.

Taseer’s was a high profile episode, but there are countless other equally tragic ones which receive little public attention. Surely it is time to reflect on what makes so many Pakistanis disposed towards celebrating murder, lawlessness, and intolerance. To understand the kind of psychological conditioning that has turned us into nasty brutes, cruel both to ourselves and to others, I suggest that the reader sample some of the Friday khutbas (sermons) delivered across the country’s estimated 250,000 mosques.

It is surely impossible to hear all khutbas, but a few hundred ones have been recorded on tape by researchers, transcribed into Urdu, translated into English, and categorized by subject at www.mashalbooks.org. Since there was no conscious bias in selecting the mosques, they can be reasonably assumed to be representative examples.

Often using abusive language, the mullahs excoriate their enemies: America, India, Israel, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Shias, and Qadianis. Before appreciative crowds, they breathe fire against the enemies of Islam and modernity. Music is condemned to be evil, together with life insurance and bank interest. In frenzied speeches they put women at the centre of all ills, demand that they be confined to the home, covered in purdah, and forbidden to use lipstick or go to beauty parlors.

But the harshest words are reserved for the countless “deviant” Muslims. Governor Taseer was considered one. The former minister for foreign affairs, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, is another. In a foul-mouthed speech that the reader can hear on the above website, Qureshi is denounced as “haramzada” by Maulana Altafur Rehman Shah of Muhammadi Masjid in Gujrat and described as a “keeper [mujawar] of graves”. Quoting Nawa-e-Waqt, this maulana of the Ahl-e-Hadith school calls Qureshi a lap dog who stands with his “cheek on the cheek of Hilary Clinton”. What, he asks, could be a matter of greater shame? Parliamentarian Jamshed Dasti, also accused of grave worship, is harshly condemned for being unable to name the first five verses of the Holy Quran.

One presumes that most listeners have enough intelligence to ignore such violent fulminations. But at times their effects are deadly. One such sermon, according to Qadri’s recorded testimony, was the turning point for him. He had heard a fiery cleric, Qari Haneef, at a religious gathering in his neighborhood, Colonel Yousuf Colony, on 31 December 2010. It is then, says Qadri, that he made up his mind to kill his boss. Qadri had participated in the gathering in his official uniform, reciting the naat in praise of the Holy Prophet (PBUH). His official gun had been slung around his shoulder at the meeting. Four days later, he fulfilled his goal.

To be sure, not all khutbas are ugly and violent. But even if ten percent are – and the data suggests this is an underestimate – that still makes for roughly 25,000 dangerous ones every week. A civilized society cannot sustain this for too long. Surely, the Pakistani state will sooner or later have to come up with a mechanism for regulating what can be said at religious gatherings. A possible model might be that of Egypt, where khutbas are pre-recorded and approved by the ulema of Jamia Al-Azhar. Without some agreed form of control, Pakistan shall sink ever deeper into religious anarchy and fanaticism.

(Published on 2 Dec 2012 in the Express Tribune. http://tribune.com.pk/story/315079/remembering-salmaan-taseer/#comments)

© 2012, Pervez Hoodbhoy. This article may not be reproduced in any form without providing an active attribution link/ reference to The Pakistan Forum. All attribution links within the article must also be retained.

Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy Governor Salmaan Taseer died at the hands of a religious fanatic on January 4 last year. Fearlessly championing a deeply unpopular cause, this brave man had sought to revisit the country’s blasphemy law which, as he saw it, was yet another means of intimidating Pakistan’s embattled religious minorities. This law — which is unique [...]

January 4: Salmaan Taseer, the governor of Punjab, is shot by one of his bodyguards near his home. Taseer dies of his wounds soon afterwards.His killer, Malik Mumtaz Qadri  disagreed with Taseer’s opposition to Pakistan’s blasphemy law. Salmaan Taseer wasbusinessman and politician who served as the 26th governor of the province of Punjab from 2008 until his assassination in early 2011. He was member of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). Taseer was also the chairman and CEO of the First Capital and Worldcall Group.

January 18: Earthquake of magnitude 7.2 hit Karachi. The epicenter 45 kilometers west of Dalbandin in Balochistan.  The epicenter is located in a sparsely populated area.

January 27: A US diplomat, Raymond Davis, kills two men on a motorbike in Lahore allegedly in self defence while a companion of the diplomat, who is also an American citizen, crushed to death a bike rider in a hit-and-run incident, following the shooting. He works for US private security firm and contractor with the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).  Later on March 16, 2011, Davis was released after the families of the two killed men were paid $2.4 million  as blood money and departed Pakistan.

30 March: The 2nd semifinal of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 was played between India and Pakistan at  Mohali (India). India won the match by 29 runs and qualified for the 2011 Cricket World Cup Final. This match has been perceived by Pakistani former cricketers and fans as a great let down from Pakistan due to their weak fielding and batting despite good talent shown previously from the Pakistani captain and players in the 2011 ICC cup^. The match drew 67.3 million viewers in India alone, and an estimated 150 million viewers worldwide. Three Pakistan citizens, including an actor Liaquat Soldier died out of shock after Pakistan lost the match. Another person was killed and 50 others were injured in aerial firings during the match in Karachi.

May 2: The head of the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda “Osama bin Laden” was killed in (Abbotabad) Pakistan by a United States special forces military unit. The raid on bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan was launched from Afghanistan.After the raid, U.S. forces took bin Laden’s body to Afghanistan for identification, then buried it at sea within 24 hours of his death.

22 May: Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan attacked the Pakistan Naval Station Mehran in karachi.  Aircraft stationed in the base were destroyed using rocket propelled grenades, including a helicopter and two, out of the Pakistan Navy’s four aircrafts. The Zarrar Battalion of the Special Service Group responded to the attack, with the military killing four of a claimed force of 8-20 attackers at a cost of ten of their own men in an operation that lasted 15 hours. The remaining assailants are believed to have been captured or escaped and an unexploded suicide jacket and live grenades were recovered after the operations

May 24: Hakim Ali Zardari, father of President Asif Ali Zardari died at the age of 81 years at a private ward in the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences Hospital in Islamabad. He was a member of the Pakistan Peoples Party, the country’s largest political party. He entered politics in 1965, helping in the campaign of Fatima Jinnah, the sister of the founder of Pakistan, against the then military dictator Gen Ayub Khan. He was member parliament thrice and also served as a federal minister twice.

November 22: Husain Haqqani resigned as Pakistan Ambassador to the United States following claims of his alleged affiliation with the Memogate  (controversy about an alleged Pakistani memo seeking the help of the US Government)

November 26: A NATO attack on two Pakistani border checkposts in Salala in the Baizai subdivision of Mohmand Agency in FATA kill 24 soldiers of the Pakistan Army. This attack resulted in a deterioration of relations between Pakistan and the United States. The Pakistani public reacted with protests all over the country and the government took measures adversely affecting the US exit strategic from Afghanistan including the evacuation of Shamsi Airfield and closure of the NATO supply line.

Be it Veena Malik, Shoaib Malik, or Rehman Malik, there is one thing I have realized; it’s not easy being a Malik in Pakistan.

The Maliks of Pakistan are forever surrounded by controversies. Despite stiff competition amongst politicians and artists who struggled to top the “hall of shame, 2011,” guess who has managed to secure the first position once again? Our very own, very dear, very entertaining, Dr Abdul Rehman Malik. To acknowledge his outstanding performance, he has even been awarded a PhD degree by the Syndicate of Karachi University in recognition of his “matchless services to the country.”

Some of his golden words uttered during the year 2011, that range from outlandish to hilarious, are listed as follows:

1) Statement: “If someone insulted Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), I, too, would shoot him”.

Event: On the assassination of Salmaan Taseer. The government responds in a way the authorities are supposed to: by promising the laws would stand, but Rehman  Malik comes up with this bizarre statement instead.

Look my dear friend, who knows one fine day some Qadri pops out of my convoy and kill me for XYZ reason under the garb of blasphemy law, would any media man come to rescue me?

2) Statement: “I am thankful to the Taliban who did not carry out any attack on Shia Muslims and showed respect to their rituals.”

Event: During the event of Ashura, Rehman Malik passed another shocking statement to the media. He actually thanked the Taliban for not attacking Shia processions! And no, he did not stop there. Rehman went on to say that he had appealed to the Taliban, asking them to spare the processions of Shia Muslims, and that he was grateful that they  responded positively to his appeal.

My friend, we must not pass sweeping statements on Taleban, like us they are human too. Shouldn’t we thank them for sparing us for at least one day, isn’t it a good deed?

3) Statement: ”The Tablighi missionary centre in Raiwaind is the breeding ground for extremism and terrorism in Pakistan as the centre has a major role in brainwashing the extremists.”

Event: Rehman Malik made this statement to the audience at the security think-tank International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) while speaking on the topic of ”Countering Extremism in South Asia’.

You need to watch movie “Khuda Kay Liye” and listen to Naseeruddin Shah closely, he says “Islam main Darhi hai, Darhi main Islam nahin”, now try to figure out what I mean.

4) Statement: ”If Google and Youtube do not help the Pakistan government, then Pakistan reserves the right to block these services to prevent terrorists from using it”.

Event: The Interior Minister when talking to the media at the FIA headquarters, urged the internet service providers to extend their help to the government for exterminating the menace of terrorism from the country.

I have warned Government of Googlistan and Republic of Youtube to cooperate with Pakistan at their best and they have agreed to keep a strict eye on terrorists using their web space to disrupt Pakistani soil. We will not spare them.

5) Statement: ”I had given a warning yesterday that there should be no match-fixing. This time I am watching it very closely. If any such thing happens we will take action”.

Event: Before the World Cup semi-final against India, Pakistani cricketers were warned beforehand not to indulge in any match-fixing by the Interior Minister Rehman Malik who said he was keeping a “close watch” on their activities.

My every statement has a philosophy behind it; we kept a close eye to watch players and didn’t let them match fix. They win, lose or even play under pressure due to my policing is not my headache. I want results.

6) Statement: “PML-N had embraced Osama bin Laden and was responsible for bringing Osama bin Laden from Egypt to Pakistan for his treatment”.

Event: Speaking at the National Assembly, Malik denied opposition leader Chaudhry Nisar’s claim that the government was sleeping while the US operation was carried out. He lashed out at PML-N for bringing Bin Laden to Pakistan.

All of you talk about 100 suitcases Nawaz Shareef brought to Saudi Arabia but forgets what he brought from there; Osama Bin Laden was packed in one of those suitcases, I will tell you the whole story at the “right time”.

7) Statement: ”Extortionists should quit extorting and leave the city”.

Event: Talking to the media after addressing a ceremony held at the Karachi Chamber of Commerce, Interior Minister Rehman Malik warned the extortionists and target killers to quit and leave Karachi else stern action will be taken against them. I bet they were scared.

Stupid warnings always work in my case; good extortionists would listen to me and leave the city, while “bad apples” will be left with no option but to disappear as well.

Statement: ”When it is reported that 100 people were killed due to target killing, investigations reveal that only 30 were its victims while 70 others died at the hands of their wives or girlfriends.”

Event: During the press conference in Quetta, when target killings were on an all time high in Karachi, the Interior Minister said that the reported figure of deaths due to target killing were not accurate because half the men were killed by the women in their lives. Now that’s some imagination Mr Malik has there. Too many action-thriller films I would say.

Along with Interior ministry I am given a task to handle “internal affair ministry” as well.

9) Statement: “They were wearing black clothes like in Star Wars movies, (one) with (a) suicide vest. They had small beards and two of them were between 20-22 years old while the third who blew himself up was about 25.”

Event: This classic comment erupted from Malik’s mouth when he was talking to the media after the PNS Mehran attack. Our dear Interior Minister came up with another bizarre analogy and compared terrorists’ outfits to Star Wars characters. Told you he was into action flicks and stuff.

One of your private Tv channels portrays me as Chulbul Malik but I proved them I am a Starwars Freak.

10) Statement: “All ground intelligence shows that Ilyas Kashmiri is dead. What I can say is that there is a 98 % chance he is dead”.

Event:  Interior Minister Rehman Malik told the media that although he had no physical proof, he was ’98 % sure’ that senior al Qaeda operative Ilyas Kashmiri was killed in a US drone strike in South Waziristan. Let’s add clairvoyance to his list of countless other outstanding traits, shall we?

You won’t ever see me boasting about percentages or issuing loose statements.Can’t do much about this, I am a Maths Man too.

This year like any other before it, was full of events which helped change the world which know of.

It crippled transportation, destroyed telecom, dams and water, ports, disrupted electricity and gas, and effected Japan’s defence and space program. World Bank’s estimated economic cost was US$235 billion, making it the most expensive natural disaster in world history. Despite international media and relief workers were not allowed in the country, what we saw was long cues of Japanese people patiently standing to receive basic stuff like water. The courage with which the nation lifted and emerged out of this tragedy, was the most spirited lesson learnt from this disaster worldwide.

May 2, 2011, Monday, Osama bin Laden
(aged 54) was reportedly killed in a US forces special operation, carried out in Abottabad. The news sent a shock wave throughout the world, but ripples it most created was inside Pakistan. Who? What? How? that followed, continued to spray onto minds of almost all citizens for weeks to come. Notably there were more questions left than answers, amid this saga. Osama was buried in sea within hours, and no visual picture of video is produced till date to confirm. Since American president announced the news instantly, Pakistan was only hoping for a peace to follow after the demise of their more feared enemy. Once again several absentee funerals were also reportedly prayed throughout Pakistan.

I will mark my return to blogging with the writing equivalent of shooting fish in a barrel.

So I read this post on Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Dish, guest written by a man named Bruce Bawer. It is quite dumb. The basic premise of the post is that gays in Pakistan are horribly persecuted by both society and the legal system, and that the U.S. embassy’s recent event held in support of the LGBT community is to be heartily applauded.

The post has some pretty basic factual errors, such as

We are speaking, after all, of a country where gay people, when they fall into the hands of authorities, are routinely imprisoned, beaten, tortured, and, at worst, put to death in accordance with sharia law.  Many Pakistani gays never end up in the hands of the law: their families carry out the execution themselves.

Really? Is there any evidence for this at all? A link to a report authored by some human rights group? Anything at all? Or is Bawer just blindly asserting things and assuming that brown country=sharia=violence against gays? I literally have no idea where he got the notion that gays are imprisoned, beaten, tortured, and put to death. And this in a country, mind you, that does plenty of imprisoning, beating, torturing and extra-judicial killing.

Then there’s this:

And what makes all this worse is that the woods are full of people – including, shamefully, gay people – eager to dissemble about it, such as the self-identified “gay Muslim” reader who responded to a post by me yesterday with an e-mail full of brazen disinformation, including the outrageous lie that in Pakistan “homosexuals have not been executed with sanction of the law for over a century.”

I actually don’t know if any gay Pakistani gas been executed by the sanction of the law since independence (the hundred years bit makes no sense given that the country is 64 years old). But I do find it interesting that Bawer asserts, again without any evidence, that the suggestion that this hasn’t happened is an “outrageous lie”. Strong but empty words, given the lack of accompanying evidence. I can safely say that I have never once read about a court-sponsored execution of gay people in Pakistan, and I read four Pakistani newspapers a day, about four more than  Bawer. (I may have missed something, obviously, so by all means link to something in the comments that backs Bawer’s case).

My educated guess is that Bawer is conflating the things like honor killings in Pakistan (which do happen, and are documented quite extensively by journalists and rights groups) with the legally-sanctioned killing of gays in places like Iran, since all intolerant brown countries are basically the same.

Then there’s this nugget:

But the Embassy meeting was not exactly cheered by Pakistani leaders.  On the contrary, a group of influential Pakistani figures, including the head of the powerful Jamaat-e-Islami party, condemned the American venture as “cultural terrorism,” second in danger only to missile attacks.

Okay, that’s just a flat out lie. The Jamaat-e-Islami (sigh) is not the same thing as “Pakistani leaders” or “influential Pakistani figures”. Actual Pakistani influential figures didn’t make a huge fuss about this incident at all; I’ve yet to read a statement from leaders of the PPP, PML(N), MQM, or ANP — you know, parties with what we call “seats” in what we call “parliament” — say anything about this. Again, I’d be willing to amend my statement on this if anyone can provide evidence to the contrary.

Influential Pakistani leaders, seen here protesting. Photo: AFP.

Secondly, the Jamaat protest got all of 100 people in Karachi, a city of 18-20 million, which for them is quite sad. These are the same people, after all, that helped organize a turnout of 40,000 in the same city against any changes to the blasphemy law.

More offending than the factual inaccuracies, and the brazen way with which they are delivered, is the tone of self-love that permeates the post. As usual, we need heroic westerners to come riding in and teach us about human rights. Bawer is “proud to be an American” after learning of this event.

Give me a break. The marginal effect of a U.S. embassy event on the lives of the “average” Pakistani gay person is basically zero. I can’t think of a single conceivable way it would make the slightest bit of difference. If anything, you can make the argument that such efforts actually imperil the lives of Pakistani gays rather than making them better. Such events sponsored by an incredibly unpopular country risks sullying further the reputation of gay Pakistanis as overly western-influenced. Pakistani gays have enough going against them, and probably don’t need such “help”.

Obviously, none of this is to suggest that Pakistan is some progressive haven open to all sexual preference. It clearly is not. But this type of rubbish fact-free Orientalism is quite pointless. If nothing else, I hope Bawer corrects the many inaccuracies in his post.

I get a lot fewer emails from readers than I used to, primarily (I think) due to Twitter. But I did get one a couple days ago, and I thought it was worthy of sharing with our other readers. This is from Hamza in Lahore.

I’m a fairly regular reader of your blog, and in the aftermath of the Governor’s assassination my feelings and reaction were somewhat like yours, with the one distinction being that I am presently in Lahore, and therefore have had to more carefully calibrate my frustration, disgust, disappointment, fear and anger, even in front of my parents, who are decidedly less liberal than I am.

The reason I am writing to you is because I wish to relate to you my experience from this morning. I normally sleep in on Saturday mornings, but today I woke up early for something I had wanted to do for weeks. I visited Salman Taseer’s grave in Cavalry Ground. It is an unmarked “kachi” grave insofar as there is no tombstone at its head, or a garish monument of marble. The family may just not have had time to arrange for something more permanent. There is, however, a Pakistani flag hoisted near the head on a ten-foot pole. The wreaths were so numerous there was a pile of them bigger than the grave itself next to the grave. The only ones laid out on the grave itself were from the Chief of Army Staff, some others from high-ranking army personnel (of the sort they lay down ceremoniously at, say, Jinnah’s grave on important occasions) and some unmarked bouquets. The only other people in the graveyard at the time were five policemen who were ostensibly on guard some fifty yards from the grave, and an elderly couple that had just paid their respects at his grave and were leaving as I arrived. If you’re wondering how I found it, the flag and the police guard were pretty obvious location markers; the wreaths marked the actual spot.

I sat there for about ten minutes on a bench close by, coming close to crying. For the most part I thought about the finality of death, and how one of the more influential and powerful men this country knew would lie beneath the dust a few feet from me forever. I thought about how Salman Taseer died for something I believed in. I looked at the flag as it fluttered in the morning breeze, and the next two stunted thoughts did not fully form in my mind till I had left the graveyard and was halfway back home. The first was a plea to my God – I’m not big on organized religion, but I do believe there’s a God up there – to let Salman Taseer into Paradise: anything less in my view would be the biggest travesty within the context of how I view divine justice. The second was a far more discomforting thought: my mind was drawing a blank on what to do in the aftermath of this horrendous event. I consider myself a liberal, my brother considers himself a liberal, and that already is a big departure from our upbringing in a fairly religious – religious, not conservative – family where us brothers are pretty much the only people on this side of the “divide”. My undergraduate education in the US (I’m on leave this year) has been focused on engineering, which seems like such a sack of shit now. What could I possibly do to further the liberal cause in Pakistan with a degree in Electrical Engineering? Teach people digital signal processing?
I can relate to the feeling you will no doubt have experienced over the last several days of sitting helpless halfway round the world, not being on the ground and seeing things transpire as they have here. That is one of the reasons I am writing to you, because I feel it is important for someone like yourself who opines on Pakistan, and is read by overseas Pakistanis, to remember that Salman Taseer’s death is not just a bunch of words on a news website or your own reaction to it. It is a grave with a father in it. It is a grave with a husband, a businessman, a governor, a liberal and a hero in it. And right now, those of us who have been deemed worthy of the same fate have no coherent approach to take on the madmen who would threaten us so. In the words of Twitter user pishipotty, “Fuck this shit. I will be more openly liberal and more vocal against the blasphemy law than I’ve ever been before.” I really wish we could all take those words to heart. I know I certainly have swung farther “left” over the last few weeks, and it would be perhaps interesting for you to see if more liberals have, and whether it could amount to anything.

One of the most instructive moments of clarity in the days since the assassination of Salmaan Taseer was provided by Jamaat-e-Islami chief Syed Munawar Hasan, as he spoke to the press in Karachi on Sunday. At a rally at which more than 20,000 Pakistanis gathered in defence of Pakistan Penal [...]