Appeasement of the religious right

Sadly, Taseer's party abandoned him and his vision during his life, and in particular after his death.

KARACHI: This is with reference to Ayesha Tammy Haq’s article of May 31 titled “Happy birthday, Salmaan Taseer”. He was a brave soul who dared to speak up against extremism. Very few people have the courage to speak up against evil but he didn’t fear for his life and spoke his mind. His death is a great loss for Pakistan and for reason.

Sadly, his party abandoned him and his vision during his life, and in particular after his death, the PPP seems to have surrendered before the fundamentalists. Proof of this is Sherry Rehman having to withdraw her bill, which would have brought some modification to the existing blasphemy law. Not only this, several PPP ministers have made statements of the most outrageous to appease the extremists. This is shameful given that the party, by its own self-professed identity, stands for progressive and liberal thinking.

Surely, the media and the party’s members should take the party to task for its appeasement of the religious right.

Abdul Jabbar

Published in The Express Tribune, June 1^st, 2011.