Brave and timely words

Bilawal Bhutto needs to consider: we certainly need people who are willing to take on the fanatics.

Breaking from the more cautious line adopted by his party at home, PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has spoken of battling extremists and defending minority communities. Some have said that these are the words of an impressionable young mind and that perhaps were he older or in Pakistan he would have said something different. However, we cannot base our assessment on what Mr Bhutto has said on clairvoyance and would in fact applaud him since such remarks are much-needed in the current climate of extreme intolerance. They are also necessary because following former Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer’s assassination, the government seems to have all but abdicated its writ and authority and the result has been that the extremist sections have become even more emboldened. In effect, these people are telling the rest of the country that even to express any opinion in support of Mr Taseer or to the effect that the blasphemy laws should be modified so as to minimise their misuse is enough for one to be labelled an apostate.

Bilawal Bhutto needs to consider certain things: we certainly need people who are willing to take on the fanatics. But they must do so from home. As a person in a position that demands considerable responsibility, it is also important that he act to strengthen his party so that it can take the decisions which should be taken, if his words are to be taken at face value. The key issue is to create harmony. The chasm between the factions in society is growing wider and wider. The party needs to sit down and devise a tactic that can help improve the worsening situation on the ground. Some process of educating people is needed. This is not just a minority issue. Majority of the people in jail on blasphemy charges are Muslim. No law should be misused as this one has been. Religious scholars, some of whom have been speaking out against the frenzied campaign that has been launched, need to be brought forward to speak of their interpretation of blasphemy. Other institutions of the state also need to rise to the challenge of taking the extremists head on.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 13^th,  2011.