Express Tribune: Politicians who mean well on the injustice of the blasphemy laws, precisely because they are scarcer than genuine fast-bowlers in Indian cricket, have to aim low and even lie a little when talking about the issue. Take the case of the sadly deceased Salmaan Taseer. Although he never said as much, I have no doubt that the slain governor would have seen the very existence of these laws as an affront to the human right to espouse unpopular speech and a means of specifically targeting vulnerable minorities. For him, as for me, Pakistan would be a saner country if these laws were banished from the books.
Yet, the cause Taseer gave his life for was not the repeal of the blasphemy laws, but their reform. He wanted to make it harder for innocent people, who had not actually blasphemed as defined by the law, to be arrested and put on trial. He never actually called the laws themselves hideously intolerant and unbecoming of a civilised country. Even this mild dissent was enough to send Mumtaz Qadri and his many thousands of fans into an orgy of murderous rage.
It is understandable that politicians striving for incremental progress on a fraught issue would deviate from an absolutist position on the blasphemy laws.
Categories: Asia, Uncategorized