Salman Taseer assassinated in Pakistan

Over the past few days news hasnt been good from the erstwhile West Pakistan. First the MQM Muhajir party pull out of the ruling PPP coalition turning it into a minority, then the bodyguard of the Governer of Punjab, the punjabi filled state of Pakistan, was assassinated by an individual assigned for his own protection.

Surely we belong to Allah, and the Him we return. (2:156)

The 26 year old killer's motive, cited in the press, was Taseer's solidarity with a poor rural christian lady, Asiya Bibi who converted from Islam, accused under redundant blasphemy laws that run contrary to the objectives of the sharia. Sunnarchic Societal Suicide. I hear that some people are of the careless, ruthless e-pinion of 'Taseer deserved it'.

Urdu speakers see Javed Ahmed Ghamidi's Islamic demolition of Pakistan's blasphemy laws here.

This dehumanisation, of both the christian and the politician reminds me of a conversation I had at a tea stall in Dhaka after the assassination of political scientist and intellectual 'inswinger' Aftab Ahmed (see the link for more detail).

'All those Dhaka University professors are atheist anyway'.

Specifically never further from the truth; demonstrative of a great gap and distrust between people and professors; and dehumanising of people who are atheist.

A man with literary heritage (his mother was the shali/sister-in-law of Faiz Ahmed Faiz), an accountant by training and institutionalised within the local elite schooling system, Taseer suffered under General Zia in the 80s but succeeded in establishing a telephony-finance-media corporate block which included The Daily Times, publisher of many amusing cartoons. He wasnt always successful at elections but was persistent with it and eventually appointed by a Musharraf-PPP complex.

Awaiting nur.