Shirking truth, fact and responsibility

A heavy price is being paid by Pakistan on account of cowardice and the shirking of doing what is right and just.

On March 6, a column was printed in the Washington Post under the name of Asif Ali Zardari, the president of Pakistan. He opened up, quoting his assassinated wife, Benazir Bhutto, herself a victim of the “internal tension within Muslim society,” which, according to BB, can only result in a clash between the West and Islam.

He wrote about “my friend Salmaan Taseer” who was “cut down”. He did not mention that he was unable to attend his funeral, whether out of fear of a security lapse, or to show solidarity with those upholding the right to murder in the name of the blasphemy laws, or to avoid a further fall in his popularity graph. An additional casualty of these horrendous laws was “another leading member of the Pakistan Peoples Party”, Minorities Affairs Minister Shahbaz Bhatti. In both cases, he judiciously avoided all mention of the blasphemy laws as being the cause of the two slayings, referring only to “our laws”.

Why can he not take a stand? Why could he not name the blasphemy laws and firmly state that, yes, they were the reason that Taseer and Bhatti were “cut down”, the sole reason that two members of his dispensation and party were murdered in the full light of day? What does he fear? Can he not call a spade a spade? We all know that countless murders have been committed because of these blasphemy laws that haunt the penal code. They were the very real reason for the two high profile murders which cannot be equated to other acts of terrorism he cited — the assassination of his wife, the blowing up of the Marriot Hotel in Islamabad and countless schools for girls in Swat.

“We will not be intimidated, nor will we retreat”, he wrote. “Such acts will not deter the government from our calibrated and consistent efforts to eliminate extremism and terrorism.” Well, how about a bit of an effort to amend or, ideally, do away with the blasphemy laws? But no, fear stalks the governmental ranks and appeasement is the order of the day. Zardari cannot even take the name of the laws under which people are sentenced to death on mere allegations, and he harbours, in the diseased bosom of his government, ministers who have stated that they are ready themselves to murder alleged blasphemers, and that the laws would be amended over their dead bodies.

All signs are that they are highly intimidated. Whatever parts of the world have an interest in Pakistan and its dicey survival, its blatant intolerance and bigotry, know well that the blasphemy laws caused the murder of the two party members and of countless others — plus the suicide of a bishop who was a true martyr for a just cause. They all know that the blasphemy laws are killing laws. Why and how is it that the head of state shirks truth, fact and responsibility?

Women and men are being sentenced to death under the iniquitous laws, the latest being an obviously deranged man sentenced on March 8, in Jhelum. Only the insane or the innocent in this land could blaspheme, the sane knowing well the price to be paid and the innocent being but victims. And yet, arrests continue to be made and death sentences passed.

“We are fighting terrorists for the soul of Pakistan and have paid a heavy price.” Yes, a heavy price is indeed being paid by the people of this country on account of cowardice and the shirking of doing what is right and just. Within three days of the publication of Zardari’s column, Faisalabad was introduced to its first taste of carnage and terrorism and Peshawar suffered yet again. Over 60 citizens were bombed into oblivion and scores were wounded. How many innocents were left mourning their dead? How many were maimed for life? And all the government can do is ‘condemn’.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 12^th, 2011.