The PPP abandoned its own governor and threw him to the wolves.
KARACHI: This is with reference to Rauf Klasra’s report of January 20 titled “PPP leadership: Accused of appeasing religious right”.
The failure, by the electronic media in particular, to hold the ruling PPP to account for more or less abandoning Governor Salmaan Taseer, and now MNA Sherry Rehman, is most distressing. The PPP abandoned its own governor and threw him to the wolves. He stood up bravely to the barbarians with determination but his own party shamefully disowned him. People like Babar Awan, Khurshid Shah and, most regrettably, the prime minister himself, all made statements that were seen as appeasing the extremists. The law minister has been at the forefront of turning a self-proclaimed liberal party into a party of bigoted, misogynistic cavemen who are hell-bent on taking this country back to the Dark Ages.
The apologetic grovelling behaviour of the party towards the religious right has only encouraged the latter to further propagate its ideology of hate and intolerance.
The PPP should realise that appeasement of the religious right did not save Zulfikar Ali Bhutto when he was in power and it is unlikely to save the PPP now. The party’s surrender to the clerics is shameful and an indicator of its weakness.
Faiq Ahmed
Published in The Express Tribune, January 21st, 2011.
