Now things are becoming clearer and more understandable. We should forgive those journalists, TV anchors and political leaders who support or avoid opposing and condemning extremists. They have a very genuine reason to live in hypocrisy. Someone who dared to oppose extremism, had to pay the price with his own life; a price for being forthright, honest, bold and outspoken. In spite of his failings and weaknesses as a human, he went down fighting a menace Pakistan has created itself. Punjab’s slain governor Salman Taseer had refused to accept that Pakistani society is no more a society of rational people; it is a jungle where you have to accept the command of those capable of killing. You must bow down to them or get perished. Period. The world is in shock at the gory incident but it fails to understand the fact that the act is being glorified by those elements who claim to profess a religion of peace. This is the most disgusting thing, more than the murder itself. And look at the attitude of the lawyers, the so-called custodians of “rule of law” who kissed and garlanded the accused when he was brought to the court. These are all very disturbing signs. Even Islam would not condone this attitude of showing disrespect to the due process of law.
It is not important that Governor Taseer was a politician and that he was killed at a point in time when his party’s government at the Center was facing worst ever crisis of its survival. The most important thing is that we have come to a pass where you cannot question a menace, particularly the one which was created to please a more dangerous menace, the clergy. The world which was worried about Pakistan’s political crisis is now in shock and unable to think what will happen next. The New York Times says that the assassination of an outspoken secular politician by one of his elite police guards on Tuesday plunged the government deeper into political crisis and highlighted the threat of militant infiltration even within the nation’s security forces.
The killing of Salman Taseer, the prominent governor of Punjab Province, was another grim reminder of the risks that Pakistani leaders take to oppose religious extremists, at a time when the United States is pushing Pakistan for greater cooperation in the war in Afghanistan by cracking down on militant groups like the Taliban.
Mr. Taseer, recently took up a campaign to repeal Pakistan’s contentious blasphemy laws, which were passed under General Zia as a way to promote Islam and unite the country. The laws have been misused to convict minority Pakistanis as the Islamic forces unleashed by the general have gathered strength. The laws prescribe a mandatory death sentence for anyone convicted of insulting Islam.
Religious parties staged vigorous demonstrations of thousands of people across the country last weekend to protest the campaign by Mr. Taseer, even burning him in effigy. Mr. Taseer countered in comments on his Twitter account and elsewhere.
“Religious right trying to pressurize from the street their support of blasphemy laws. Point is it must be decided in Parliament not on the road,” he wrote on Dec. 26 in the imperfect shorthand typical of such posts.
“I was under huge pressure to cow down before rightist’s pressure on blasphemy. Refused. Even if I’m the last man standing,” he posted on Dec. 31.
Mr. Taseer’s death will serve as a chilling warning to any politician who speaks out against the religious parties and their agenda and will certainly end immediate attempts to amend the blasphemy laws.
The paper also reports that Obama administration officials worry that even if Pakistan’s government survives the upheaval — which they believe it might, for a while — the turmoil could kill any chance for political and economic reforms. The assassination, one official said, leaves not only the repeal of the blasphemy laws in doubt, but also possible reforms to increase tax collection. Under pressure from Secretary of State and other American officials, the Pakistani government submitted a new tax law in Parliament. But it may abandon the push as a way to lure back coalition partners.
Voice of Sanity and Reason 
It is time the world recognizes that Pakistan is more of a criminal enterprise, than a nation. The nation has been hijacked by mullahs who are breeding religious intolerance and hatred.
Pakistani nation is generally not pro-extremists. This is amply reflected in the outcome of elections where no religious party has ever got any mandate to rule the country. The poor people of Pakistan are being held hostage to gun-carrying extremists. The post amply explains why no one openly challenged these extremists.
When a country establishes a state religion, it means that every political party has to compete to conform to that religion. In Pakistan’s case, it just so happens that politicians have tried to outdo each other in building upon ever narrower definitions of the state religion. Distinctions between religious and non-religious parties are meaningless in such a milieu, since they would all be part of the religious right in a secular state. Given that there is not much difference in the costs to be paid, Pakistani politicians would do well to dump the state religion in favor of a secular constitution.
The smiling face of the cold-blooded murderer is the face of pure evil. Is he an exception or the norm in Pakistan? One has to wonder. Unfortunately, this kind of religious fanaticism is too deeply entrenched in Pakistan to be uprooted now. The country can thank their ‘establishment’ for this. They fanned the flames of religious extremism to get a so-called ‘strategic’ advantage. Now the flames threaten to obliterate the nation itself. Too late to do anything now. Watch for more upheaval from here on.
@Ben, it is easy to see why nobody openly challenged these religious extremists. They would have ended up like Salman Taseer. Would you do it openly?
@Ben, well, why is it that it is only the poor people of pakistan who get run roughshod over by gun totting extremists with impunity why is it not India or Bangladesh or Sri Lanka or any other neighbouring countries or any other country across the world? It is, because they allow themselves to be bullied. If a country as tiny as Sri Lanka with much limited resources can handle a menacing terrorist organization like LTTE then so can Pakistan. It is all dependent on the determination of people. What more can I say…
Pakistan came into being to serve the cause of “Islam”, not secularism. Hopefully you’d make your peace with the reality of Pakistan soon enough. btw, your blog is anti-Islam and anti-Pakistan.