The governor of punjab province in pakistan Salman Taseer was shot dead by his own security personnel mumtaj qadri on 4th january.The reason why he killed him is dat taseer wanted to civilize a society which is bounded by the shackles of religious fundementalism n medieval orthodoxy.
A new debate had emerged in pakistani civil society since the death penalty was awarded to a poor christian women in pakistan asia bibi for the charges of blasphemy.
The debate which emerged in pakistan was whether to repeal blashphemy law or not.
Blashphemy law was one of the medieval laws which was imposed in pakistan during Zia-ul-haq,s islamisation process.It was called as a dark law by the liberal faction of pakistani society.Salman Taseer was the most high profile critic of dis law.Actually he as the governor of punjab recommended pardon 4 asia bibi.He was criticised by all factions in pakistan n even dubbed as munafiq n kafir by few right-wings parties.
Lets examine wat dis blashphemy law is all about.It actually says dat anyone who criticizes prophet mohammed becomes eligible 4 death penality as it is an heinous crime in the eyes of god.
This blashphemy law was present in all abrahimic religions in west asia 4 example in judaism the third book of torah states dat anyone who speaks blasphemy shall be put to death.Even christaniaty speaks of hard punishment against blasphemy.
Now the question arises is whether dis medieval law is applicable in any modern civilized society the answer is no.In pakistan itself 647 persons hve been aquitted under blasphemy law between 1986-2007 and out of dat 59% r non-muslims.Thus blasphemy law is used as a tool by muslims to target minorties 4 dere personal gains n rivalries.Thus it is due to dis misuse of law dat salman taseer campaigned against repealing it.But wat he got 4 his struggle to modernize a orthodox society is 27 bullets.Taseer wanted to become ataturk or mustafa kemal pasha of pakistan but he forgot dat dis is not Turkey but Pakistan which has become hotbed of religious intolerance n religious extremism in last 3 decades.
The assasination of taseer hve silenced all voices of moderation in pakistan n i doubt after seeing taseer,s fate any moderate voice will emerge in near future which will speak so strongly against dis dark law as taseer did.
The fate of Pakistan is undecided.India has a very strong role to play in dis.India needs to strongly support all the democratic n liberal voices in pakistan but i m afraid india is not playing dis role.India needs to understand dis fact dat modern liberal pakistan is very much favourable 4 India.
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