At the mercy of mullahs

The riots in Peshawar following the publication of an allegedly blasphemous letter in The Frontier Post show how fundamentalist forces try to exploit every situation to their advantage. In a democratic society, the unqualified apology of the newspaper management for publishing a letter received via e-mail, would have been sufficient to assuage the "hurt" feelings of the faithful. At its own initiative, the management could have also found out whether there was anything more in the publication of the letter than met the eye. That is, perhaps, how most readers in Peshawar too would have expected the management to react. But then how would such rational behaviour have benefitted the mullahs, who want to prove themselves as the true custodians of both religion and the law? This was their chance to assert themselves, block the roads that led to Peshawar, indulge in violence and wreak havoc on the lives of law-abiding citizens. Instead of targeting such elements, the authorities in Peshawar have not onlyordered the closure of The Frontier Post, they’ve arrested five senior journalists of the paper. It is not at all a surprise that they have invoked the infamous Blasphemy Act to get even with the journalists. Under the law, if the five arrested journalists are found guilty, they face either life imprisonment or the death penalty.

Any hope that the medieval blasphemy law of Pakistan would be done away with has all but receded with this development. How the vested interests want the law to remain on the statute book was exposed when they successfully lobbied against General Pervez Musharraf’s move to amend it, in the first flush of his takeover. Since then there have been umpteen cases in which the pernicious law was used against innocent people. In 1998, Bishop John Joseph even shot himself in the head in full public view to protest against the death penalty imposed on a young Christian, Ayub Masih. The suicide shocked the conscience of the world but it had no effect on the fundamentalists who know that it is a potent weapon that can be deployed against anybody who dares to cross their path. Independent journalists in Pakistan have in the past enumerated instance after instance when people belonging to the minority communities have been terrorised into submission by such elements, either to grab their property or simply to teach them alesson.

The blasphemy law is the brainwave of General Zia-ul-Haq, who wanted to consolidate his position by humouring fundamentalist forces. That he thought a special law was necessary to protect the fair image of the All Merciful in a land where His adherents were in such a large majority showed how warped his mind was. He chose to ignore the fact that, with this law, Pakistan descended from being a nation with a Muslim majority into a fundamentalist nation. From there to being a Talibanised nation, where non-conformity with what the mullahs decree as the standard practice is severely punished, is a logical evolution. The incidents in Peshawar is a clear signal of how Talibanisation is already complete in many areas of Pakistan.