Another voice silenced

Rehman is yet another casualty for a fast-thinning last-line of defence against bigotry in Pakistan.

Another outspoken defender of the downtrodden and a voice of tolerance in Pakistan has been silenced. While we do not officially know who was behind the cold-blooded murder of human rights activist and lawyer Rashid Rehman in Multan on May 7, piecing together motive may not be very difficult here. Rehman was currently defending a man accused of blasphemy — a lecturer at Bahauddin Zakaria University — on social media. The lawyer, who was also a coordinator for the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, had been threatened multiple times for taking up the case and had even complained about the warnings.

On the one hand, it is shocking that these threats were made on the premises of the court, reportedly by lawyers of the prosecution team, while on the other it is deeply disturbing that no action was taken against the people he had complained about. No security was offered to Rehman despite his complaints — but that may not have mattered. Rehman was known as a brave man who did not care for fame, attention or for security protocols of any sort. The easy accessibility of his office, which is where two assailants gunned him down after entering without any sort of resistance, is proof of that. But security in Pakistan guarantees nothing. How can we forget the case of former Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer.

The problem here is far more serious than a lack of security — even if we wait for official pronouncement over whether the murder was linked to the blasphemy case. It is the crippling absence of tolerance and the ubiquitous threat of violence — violence with impunity. It is the monopolisation of the social narrative in Pakistan— particularly when it pertains to the interpretation of religion — by bigoted hate-cartels, and silence of the state in the face of the bloody manifestation of this monopoly. Rehman was not the first victim of this problem and may not be the last. What can be said with certainty is that he is yet another casualty for a fast-thinning last-line of defence against bigotry in Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 9^th, 2014.

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