Barely two months after Punjab Governor Salman Taseer’s cold-blooded murder,Bhatti was the next one to fall. Their crime was the support they had publicly offered to Aasia Bibi,a Christian woman convicted of blasphemy against the prophet of Islam.
As soon as I got this news,and much before I could feel sad,I found myself dialling 0092 (being a journalist means less emotion,more action) to find someone in Pakistan who could write an article for The Indian Express’ s opinion section. A colleague asked if I knew any isaayi(Christian) from Pakistan who could write. My first reaction was: Um,I’ll have to think. Second reaction: Most of Pakistan’s Christians haven’t had the opportunity to grow into articulate,expressive individuals. Third reaction: Whoever writes against Pakistan’s blasphemy law,will be risking it for himself/herself.
The third reaction applied to just about everyone,irrespective of religion.
I finally commissioned the piece to my dear friend,Ayesha Siddiqa,one of the most well-known hands on defence and strategy in Pakistan. I thought long and hard about her safety after the piece gets printed but explained myself that she is anyway,living on borrowed time.
A lot of my friends in Pakistan are living on borrowed time.
Death threats are handed to the secular,liberal,progressive,and add to that,outspoken,lot of Pakistan like exhibition catalogues.
This calls for some analysis.
This secular,liberal,progressive and outspoken lot has always been present in Pakistan,despite all its social shortcomings and shortfalls,the muzzling and the gagging,et al. Faiz Ahmed Faiz,Habib Jalib,Ahmed Faraz,Munir Niazi are some well-known rebels who defied not only the political clampdown of their times but also documented their rebellion in their poetry. They,obviously and expectedly invited censorship of their work and of the larger media industry of their times.
The ripples of religious intolerance that have now grown into a tidal wave of religious terrorism were created by Gen. Zia-ul-Haq. He can safely be anointed the architect of all that is evil in Pakistan. He’s got blood on his hands: the blood shed in the brutal murders of Benazir Bhutto,Salman Taseer and now,Shahbaz Bhatti. With a heavy heart,I predict the list hasn’t ended.
That gives us food for thought: why has religious extremism hit the roof lately,that too,under a secular Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government? One has never heard of such abominable acts of terror from Zia’s times.
The answer is that the seed sown by Zia has sprouted and grown into a full-fledged tree with a strong trunk,thick foliage and ample undergrowth. Zia,during his dictatorship,undertook a massive Islamisation drive in Pakistan (famously termed as Nizam-e-Mustafa) and with an iron fist,shoved Islam (his own version,of course) down people’s throats. Being the army chief,his first and the most long lasting sermon was delivered to the Pakistan army. These neo-convert faujis were commissioned once again this time,to spread Zia’s message far and wide. And,as luck would have it,the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. Pakistan under army chief and president Zia-ul-Haq lent their Muslim brothers across the Durand Line a helping hand. And while this help was being given,the message was also being passed on.
Word of mouth spreads faster and wider than wild fire.
That fire has since been raging in Pakistan,only to leave its core,its shell,its crust all fumed,gutted and charred.
Zia’s terror didn’t end with his death. He documented his evil designs into Pakistan’s penal code which we know today as the controversial Blasphemy Laws of Pakistan. Bhutto was the architect of Pakistan’s present constitution of 1973 which Zia amended many times. These Blasphemy Laws are actually his insertions into the Pakistan Penal Code. The laws address issues ranging from defiling the Quran to using derogatory remarks against holy personages to the Hudood Ordinance. Zia had totally polluted the constitution by the time his death gave Pakistan a breather.
But the sad and rather mind-baffling fact remains that Bhutto’s party,despite being in power today,is suffering Zia’s wards. Bhutto’s effort to create the new constitution seems to have been decimated by Zia’s effort to contaminate it. And Bhutto’s men are,sadly,helpless.
