Will progressive forces wake up now?

Talk shows blabber on, the civil society is reduced to arranging vigils appealing for tolerance.

“What do you think of Salmaan Taseer’s murder?” asked a friend who usually wears jeans. What would one think of anyone’s murder, I thought to myself. She brushed her perfectly manicured hands through her hair and said, “he was morally corrupt”. I felt sick in my stomach. The hairdresser blowdrying her hair agreed: “I just got an SMS saying that those who protect blasphemers deserve to die.” My friend nodded in agreement, picked up her Gucci bag and sighed: “I suppose the dinner tonight will be cancelled.”

I wondered how many more of her are out there. Those who deceptively lead a western lifestyle, drink and party, yet their political beliefs are similar to those of the Lal Masjid brigade. Have we become a schizophrenic society? Or have years of shunning away politics as a vice produced a society bereft of any sound political or moral principles?

We saw Taseer’s murderer, Mumtaz Qadri, become a hero for religious hardliners. And for religious parties, who have remained divided and directionless in the last few years, he has become a rallying point. It is a cause more compelling than rising petrol prices and heavy taxes. And so the politics of religion will begin again in Pakistan, something that this country is all too familiar with. This will in its wake leave behind a trail of blood. It will make the minorities more vulnerable, make the hardliners stronger, unite the religious parties, make the schizophrenics amongst us more confused and the rest more fearful.

The PPP, traditionally a progressive party, has already backtracked from repealing the blasphemy law while proponents of the law have fallen silent, at least for now. Talk shows blabber on and the civil society is reduced to arranging vigils appealing for tolerance. Meanwhile, the Taliban are once again flexing their muscles in Orakzai Agency. They have been enforcing their own laws in the area and terrorising those who do not follow them. It is no longer safe for journalists to travel to these areas. So it’s anyone’s guess how powerful the militants have become over the last two years and what effect this will have in the months to come. Meanwhile, the army is dragging its feet on starting a military operation in North Waziristan. Politicians have not helped either, they continue to play for a stake in the pie and are unable to unite and strategise to safeguard the lives of citizens, who are at the mercy of wild militancy. Benazir’s mission, promised in the manifesto of the PPP, of merging these Taliban-infested areas with Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, remains unfulfilled. These areas have become safe havens for thugs, kidnappers, al Qaeda, the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban and anyone who has a fight to fight and needs training.

The poor wonder how they will get by with inflation and no gas. Businessmen struggle to keep their factories running in the face of an energy crises and a security situation detrimental for any enterprise. As people’s worries pile up, there is less space to think of solutions. While the voices of the hardliners grow louder in support of ‘heroes’ like Mumtaz Qadri, progressive forces clutch onto their candles and take to the streets. It’s the same faces that we see every time a secular-minded leader is killed or a Christian woman is raped. But their numbers have dwindled and they are looking tired and hopeless. What is astounding is that the freedoms they have fought for so courageously are being enjoyed by people — like my jeans-clad friend — who hop from one party to the other, oblivious to the fact that we are fighting a war within.

Salmaan Taseer’s murder presents an opportunity for secular, progressive forces to unite and strategise for their survival, but so far they have not seized it. I fear this may be their last chance, before hardliners swallow the silent, lazy majority and the schizophrenics amongst us.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 10^th, 2011.