Silencing opposition: Militants begin targeting women MNAs

‘Three lawmakers, SCBA president under severe threat from extremists’.

LAHORE:

Law enforcement agencies are stepping up their security details for three liberal women lawmakers and a human rights lawyer after they have come under continuous threat from extremists.

The four women have spoken out strongly against militants have now become the target of terrorists, according to security officials. The women are former Information Minister Sherry Rehman, former PPP spokesperson Fauzia Wahab, Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President Asma Jahangir and a member of the National Assembly from the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, Kashmala Tariq.

Kashmala Tariq has been receiving kidnapping threats, and has requested that guards be provided at her residence.

Internal documents from Punjab law enforcement agencies suggest that officials are hesitant to deploy regular police officers and instead want to use staff specially trained for personal protection, such as the Punjab Elite Force. Other documents suggest that Sherry Rehman and Asma Jahangir are also under  threat.

Rehman had originally proposed a bill in the National Assembly that would amend the controversial blasphemy law and make it harder for extremists to exploit it. After Salmaan Taseer was assassinated, Rehman withdrew her bill and has been maintaining a low profile.

Asma Jahangir has come out in support of Aasia Bibi, It was Aasia’s case that both Taseer and the assassinated minorities minister, Shahbaz Bhatti, had been championing.

Former PPP spokesperson Fauzia Wahab attracted the ire of religious extremists when she made a statement claiming that US citizen and CIA operative Raymond Davis had diplomatic immunity.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 03^rd, 2011.