Governor Salmaan Taseer’s assassination has completely changed my views.
PESHAWAR: I still remember the day a Polish firm that I worked with online offered me to join their office in Warsaw. They were willing to increase my pay and bear my travel expenses. I decided not to go, as I thought if I remain in my country I could create jobs here for other Pakistanis.
I have always been optimistic, even at the most scariest of times. No matter how grave the situation would get, I always trusted my instincts and my country, the state and the different pillars safeguarding it. However, Governor Salmaan Taseer’s assassination has completely changed my views. I now feel that staying back in Pakistan was a wrong decision. Someone who is the sitting governor is not safe and he is killed for expressing his views on a controversial law added to the Constitution by a military dictator. So how can I be sure that someday I will not meet the same fate, if someday I annoy another Mumtaz Qadri?
This killer will soon meet his well-deserved fate but we have many Mumtaz Qadris amongst our midst and many more will rise. They are in our schools, bazaars, mosques, madrassas, universities, colleges, offices, law-enforcement agencies, political parties and the media.
I used to defend my country and its institutions; but how can I defend this? The nature of the act and the thought behind this heinous act puts a lot of question marks on our national character and identity. I have no courage left to walk with my head held high and say that I’m proud of my country.
Altaf Ahmad
Published in The Express Tribune, January 6th, 2011.
