Search for sanity

All leadership has donned dark glasses so they do not see the true colour of the crimson blood staining our streets.

Minister for Minority Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti died for taking what had been his party’s official line on the country’s blasphemy laws and the injustices committed under them, until it suddenly retreated from this stand at the end of 2010. Its cowardice almost certainly contributed to the deaths of both Salmaan Taseer and Bhatti. Yet, even though the PPP has suffered horrendous losses at the hands of extremists, it refuses to abandon its silence over the issue of blasphemy or to make any kind of attempt to tackle the monster of fanaticism that is threatening to swallow up any element of good that still remains intact within the country. Even the statements made have been lacklustre, barely rising above the purely cosmetic.

Indeed, across the political spectrum, there seems to be a singular failure to recognise how deep the crisis we face is. It seems as if all our political leaders have donned dark glasses which prevent them from seeing the true colour of the crimson blood staining our streets. We desperately need to bring all mainstream parties together and develop a strategy to defeat extremism. It is shocking that a number of them chose not to speak out over the death of Bhatti. But somehow they need to be persuaded of the need to dismantle the Taliban and get rid of the other evil forces that they have played a part in creating. This can happen only if there is a broad consensus, across institutions and civil society, of the need to disentangle elements that represent the state from these groups and recognise that they present a fearful threat to the country. Its very ability to survive is today under question.

The government needs to take the lead in developing such a consensus. The apparent helplessness — or unwillingness, perhaps — shown by the authorities in the face of repeated acts of brutality committed by gunmen who seem able to kill at will can only embolden them, and by doing so add to the risks faced by all those who challenge the growth of intolerance and hatred. Past experience should have clearly shown us that if the extremists are given an inch, they take a couple of hundred miles.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 4^th, 2011.