My father died for Pakistan – by Shehrbano Taseer
In November 2010, Shehrbano and Aamna Taseer, the daughter and wife of slain governor Salman Taseer, speak with Asia Bibi, a Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy by a court in central Punjab. Salman Taseer had mounted a campaign to have the verdict overturned.
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Not unlike Benazir Bhutto, Governor Taseer was martyred because of his belief in a secular and democratic Pakistan – by Rusty Walker
TWENTY-SEVEN. That’s the number of bullets a police guard fired into my father before surrendering himself with a sinister smile to the policemen around him. Salmaan Taseer, governor of Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province, was assassinated on Tuesday — my brother Shehryar’s 25th birthday — outside a market near our family home in Islamabad.
The guard accused of the killing, Mumtaz Qadri, was assigned that morning to protect my father while he was in the federal capital. According to officials, around 4:15 p.m., as my father was about to step into his car after lunch, Mr. Qadri opened fire.
Mr. Qadri and his supporters may have felled a great oak that day, but they are sadly mistaken if they think they have succeeded in silencing my father’s voice or the voices of millions like him who believe in the secular vision of Pakistan’s founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
My father’s life was one of struggle. He was a self-made man, who made and lost and remade his fortune. He was among the first members of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party when it was founded by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in the late 1960s. He was an intellectual, a newspaper publisher and a writer; he was jailed and tortured for his belief in democracy and freedom. The vile dictatorship of Gen. Mohammad Zia ul-Haq did not take kindly to his pamphleteering for the restoration of democracy.
One particularly brutal imprisonment was in a dungeon at Lahore Fort, this city’s Mughal-era citadel. My father was held in solitary confinement for months and was slipped a single meal of half a plate of stewed lentils each day. They told my mother, in her early 20s at the time, that he was dead. She never believed that.
Determined, she made friends with the kind man who used to sweep my father’s cell and asked him to pass a note to her husband. My father later told me he swallowed the note, fearing for the sweeper’s life. He scribbled back a reassuring message to my mother: “I’m not made from a wood that burns easily.” That is the kind of man my father was. He could not be broken.
He often quoted verse by his uncle Faiz Ahmed Faiz, one of Urdu’s greatest poets. “Even if you’ve got shackles on your feet, go. Be fearless and walk. Stand for your cause even if you are martyred,” wrote Faiz. Especially as governor, my father was the first to speak up and stand beside those who had suffered, from the thousands of people displaced by the Kashmir earthquake in 2005 to the family of two teenage brothers who were lynched by a mob last August in Sialkot after a dispute at a cricket match.
After 86 members of the Ahmadi sect, considered blasphemous by fundamentalists, were murdered in attacks on two of their mosques in Lahore last May, to the great displeasure of the religious right my father visited the survivors in the hospital. When the floods devastated Pakistan last summer, he was on the go, rallying businessmen for aid, consoling the homeless and building shelters.
My father believed that the strict blasphemy laws instituted by General Zia have been frequently misused and ought to be changed. His views were widely misrepresented to give the false impression that he had spoken against Prophet Mohammad. This was untrue, and a criminal abdication of responsibility by his critics, who must now think about what they have caused to happen. According to the authorities, my father’s stand on the blasphemy law was what drove Mr. Qadri to kill him.
There are those who say my father’s death was the final nail in the coffin for a tolerant Pakistan. That Pakistan’s liberal voices will now be silenced. But we buried a heroic man, not the courage he inspired in others. This week two leading conservative politicians — former Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and the cricket-star-turned-politician Imran Khan — have taken the same position my father held on the blasphemy laws: they want amendments to prevent misuse.
To say that there was a security lapse on Tuesday is an understatement. My father was brutally gunned down by a man hired to protect him. Juvenal once asked, “Who will guard the guards themselves?” It is a question all Pakistanis should ask themselves today: If the extremists could get to the governor of the largest province, is anyone safe?
It may sound odd, but I can’t imagine my father dying in any other way. Everything he had, he invested in Pakistan, giving livelihoods to tens of thousands, improving the economy. My father believed in our country’s potential. He lived and died for Pakistan. To honor his memory, those who share that belief in Pakistan’s future must not stay silent about injustice. We must never be afraid of our enemies. We must never let them win.
Source: The New York Times
whatever i undertstand and my little bit knowledge of Islam.
Because Muhammad PBUh is not in this era.
So we can not decide ourself that we should kill to that person who speak some about Muhammad PBUH.Because in His Era Muhammad PBUH He never killed to a person even a person threw stones at him.
So According to this ERxample my views are
Salman Taseer is Shaeed
Muhammafd
QADRI’S SUPORTERS R THOSE WHO PLAY POLITICS IN DA NAME OF RELIGION.ALL THESE JAHADI GROUPS ARE BANNED IN SAUDIA ARABIA N UAE THEN Y THEY R SERVING HERE TAKING ADVANTAGE OF PEOPLE ‘S ILLETRACY AND POVERTY.
I salute your father’s courage and unflinching belief in humanity and fair play. I also applaud your courage and hope that Mr Taseer Shaheed’s cold blooded murder may bring social change in Pakistani society.
I’m very touched by your words. Wish I could do something.
Even in the legal landscape of today’s Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the institution of Fatwa (traditionally, non-binding legal opinions based on Islamic law by a Jurist) only makes sense if issued by a court or at the most, by the Federal Shariat Court. Why is the government allowing sundry clerics to get away with issuing Fatwas, especially Fatwas that declare someone Wajib ul Qatl (worthy of death). Doesn’t Pakistan have any laws against such pronouncements, which can be equated with incitement to murder?
If the country does not have such laws, I would strongly suggest the enactment of such laws without delay. Moreover, the media must be barred from publishing / relaying any Fatwa by individual clerics, particularly Fatwas that incite murder. Those violating such laws must be punished since the un-controlled issuance of Fatwas is leading to Fitna, which is banned in the Quran.
Ms. Taseer,
My profound condolences on the death of your father. I agree with you that his death will not go in vain.
Personally, I stand for a secular Pakistan, untouched by religious laws, especially those instituted during & after the Zia years.
However, given that the leadership of this country are afraid to roll back some of the draconian laws created in the name of Islam or even speak out against those (let alone punish) those who incite and / or condone atrocities committed in the name of religion, the least they can do is to regulate who can issue Fatwas.
Unless some brakes are applied to the fast, downward slide of Pakistan, the country is doomed.
Your father was a matter of strength to me. May he rest in peace.
He died for trying to fulfill a dream of establishment of an egalitarian society in which there would be no discrimination on the basis of race, religion, sex or creed. Future historian will give him the right respect and recognition as today’s politicians and leaders are too short sighted with a tunnel vision to see where they are taking this society to.
He died for trying to fulfill a dream of establishment of an egalitarian society in which there would be no discrimination on the basis of race, religion, sex or creed. Future historian will give him the right respect and recognition as today’s politicians and leaders are too short sighted with a tunnel vision to see where they are taking this society to.
Centre asks Punjab to tighten Aasia’s security
Monday, January 10, 2011
By Amir Mir
LAHORE: The federal ministry of interior has asked the Punjab government to enhance security measures for Aasia Bibi, the Christian woman languishing at the Sheikhupura district jail after being condemned to death.
The move has come in the wake of intelligence reports that some militant outfits, including a relatively unknown Moawiya group, have planned to assassinate her in jail after declaring her a ‘blasphemer’.
Well informed interior ministry sources confirmed that following the January 4 assassination of Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, grave concerns have been expressed about Aasia Bibi’s safety by none other than Pope Benedict XVI, who had earlier called for her release, prompting Taseer to meet her at Sheikhupura district jail.
In his recent communique to the Pakistan Government, the Pope is reported to have condemned the murder of Taseer besides expressing worries about Aasia’s safety. The decision makers in Islamabad have been asked to make foolproof security arrangements for Aasia given the fact that around three dozen blasphemy accused facing court trials have already been killed extra-judicially, with many of them found dead in prison under dubious circumstances.
The ministry of interior has subsequently directed the Punjab home department to shift Aasia to a separate jail cell and provide her extra security. The home department has also been directed to conduct a thorough scrutiny of the security staff responsible for Aasia Bibi’s security, amidst renewed fears that some other religiously motivated fanatic in police uniform could assassinate her anytime, as had been the case with the Punjab governor.
The sources confirmed that a rather unknown militant outfit – the Moawiya group — intends to target Aasia in Sheikhupira jail where she is being held since November 2009, waiting for the Lahore High Court to hear her appeal against the death sentence.
According to available figures, 133 people are currently held in different jails across Punjab on blasphemy charges, out of which 13 have already been sentenced to death, including Aasia Bibi, who was the first woman to be given the penalty. Though no one has so far been executed after being convicted, 35 people, including the late Punjab Governor, who were accused of committing blasphemy or defending those charged with blasphemy, have been killed between 1990 and 2011.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=3222&Cat=13&dt=1/10/2011
Salute 2 Brave Committed Symbol Of Civilization , Liberalism, Democratic Behavior, born Leader, True Bhuttoiest Shaheed Salmaan Taseer !
Mr. Mohammad, You must extend your “little bit knowledge” at least up to the minimum believes of Islam. Do you know about “Rajam” done by Hazrat Mohammad S.A.W in his own supervision. What we are doing about this action of Profit PBUH, being the followers of Muhammad SAW. and as per your understanding as well, we must do the “Rajam” to “married Zani”, are we doing so???. If you are not familiar with these terms I mentioned here you must go to learn first about the basics of Islam. Muhammad S.A.W. is not physically in this era. But his whole life is way to the salvation and real success in this life and life after death (which is endless)
farooq
Farooq – there is a great Sitar player, DR Rajam – are you talking about him?
There is great debate about stoning in Islam – because only evidence of it is in Hadith and Hadiths are not always reliable. Especially the hadith about rajam/stoning
Blasphemy law is a made by Gen. Zia and his bhoys are doing their best to ensure it continues. Because with it they exert control – its all about power
Why so many Muslims are letting themselves be held swayed by such hypocrites has more do with reactionism, emotionalism and lack of tolerance, rather than anything substantive.
Please correct yourself – Salman Taseer is not, I repeat he is not a martyr. Period!
I SOLUTE YOU SALMAN TASEER SHAHEED . YOUR SACRfICE YOUR LIFE FOR US >>>
Miss shehrbano …
i reas your article thoroughly … people of Pakistan cannot repair the loss of such a heroic personality.. his views, his way of communication, his innocent face, pleasant smile and courageous and intellectual mind make him sacrifice his life… mumtaz qadri is not a muslim in any aspect anymore… according to verses of Quran… these religious molvi’s even dont knw what is islam .. how could they know Salman taseer… May his soul rest in peace. Amen
Salman Arshad
These jahadis and extremists should be banned or to be killed because they play games by hoodwinking the nation by the name of religion. They dont have other ways to get seats and to be elected as a member in assembly they brought down the source “religion” to do politics by the name of God and Holy book. Mr. Qadri was appreciated throughout the Country by murdering, our religion teaches us to kill someone??? Whatever Mr. Taseer was right, wrong but according to me he doesn’t deserve to be brutally killed. Unfair and unjustic now Mr. Qadri should be hang till death.
gustaakh-e-rasool ki ek hi saza sur tann se juda
Gift from “Ghazi Mumtaz Hussain Qadri” to Pakistani Muslims
Sunni Tehreek demolishes Masjid & Commit Blasphemy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXPqqJeNFWw&feature=channel_video_title
I am against killing (for any reasons as maybe)
BUT, Salman Taseer was no martyr, Period.
He was misusing public funds, living a hypocritic life and cared less for the people than the color of his shit. I don’t encourage the threats being made against his family specially women and this display of photos isn’t helping anyone.
Our prophet said, “Do not talk ill of a fellow muslim (now, here some would say, he wasn’t a muslim but I beg to differ. No one, not even the prophet had a right to do so,so, let it be)
My own father once saud, it is not human but a side of human influenced by Satan when he talks ill about others
DO YOU THINK ABOUT
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