Salman Taseer, Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, Aasia Bibi Vs. State

The objective analysis of all events that culminated in murder is the need of the hour but unfortunately, the analysis so far is a lopsided one either to the one end of the scale or the other end, hence both are extreme views and nothing but is an effort to join the either of the bandwagon.

First, what is the matter of one Aasia Bibi? Asia Bibi, 45, was handed down the death sentence by a court in Nankana district in central Punjab on Monday. Ms Asia’s case dates back to June 2009 when she was asked to fetch water while out working in the fields. But a group of Muslim women labourers objected, saying that as a non-Muslim she should not touch the water bowl. A few days later the women went to a local cleric and alleged that Ms Asia made derogatory remarks about the Prophet (peace be upon him). The cleric went to police, who opened an investigation.

Second, What should be the response of the state as an Islamic Republic?  The response of the Govt. should be probe the allegations in a transparent manner and make public all its inquiries in this matter. Federal Minister for Minorities Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti has also urged the provincial government to provide all possible chances to Aasia Bibi to plea her case on merit. Talking to reporters outside parliament house after attending a meeting of National Assembly standing committee on Monday, Mr Bhatti said the government would not allow anyone to misuse the blasphemy law. President Zardari has also sought a report from the minorities` affairs ministry on the sentencing to death on blasphemy charges of a Christian woman of Nankana Sahib. Aasia Bibi was sentenced to death under Sections 295 B and C of the Pakistan Penal Code after an altercation between her and her co-workers over fetching water from fields. According to media reports, police took her into protective custody to shield her from a mob and later registered a case against her. The spokesman said the president had asked Minorities Affairs Minister Shahbaz Bhatti to submit a report on the issue within three days.

The response of the Govt. should be in line with the recommendations of the Standing Committee on Law and Justice, which is being reproduced below.

The Standing Committee on Law and Justice after detailed deliberations decided to recommend the proposed deletion of ‘or imprisonment of life’ from Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code. The members, however, observed that there was a need for a more specific definition of the offence under Section 295 PPC which the members were of the considered opinion was in the present form very generalised. The committee suggests that the matter may be referred to the Council of Islamic Ideology for suggesting a more specific definition of the offence falling under Section 295 PPC As well as for its opinion as to whether during the lifetime of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) or during the period of Khulafa-i-Rashideen or afterwards in any of the Muslim countries, what was the punishment awarded to the offenders for committing offence falling under Section 295 PPC” (Gazette Extraordinary, Feb 22, 1992).

Third, What Salman Taseer did as a representative of the state? After Bibi’s conviction last November, the case seized the attention of Taseer, the outspoken governor of Punjab. Outraging conservatives, he visited Bibi in jail along with his wife, Aamna, and his daughter. He posed for photos, offered warm support, and promised a presidential pardon. He spoke on high authority – President Asif Ali Zardari told Taseer he was “completely behind him”, a reliable source said. He was playing with fire. Religious leaders were outraged at Taseer’s description of the blasphemy statute as a “black law”. Protesters torched the governor’s effigy outside his sweeping residence in central Lahore.

Fourth, What was the aspiration of the public at large? The public reaction to this case has been divided. Protestors in Lahore rallied on 21 November demanding Aasia’s release. Yet only a few days later during another protest in the same city, an Aalmi Tanzim Ahle Sunnat (ATAS) leader Pir Muhammad Afzal Qadri requested Pakistan’s Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry to take suo moto action against Governor Salmaan Taseer for supporting Aasia Bibi.

Fifth, What was the role of our so called learned and moderate civil society in all this incident? Recently a Christian woman, Aasia Bibi, was sentenced to death for allegedly committing blasphemy. Mr Taseer emerged as one of her most high-profile supporters. He not only visited her in jail and held a press conference with her, but also promised to get a presidential pardon for her. Although the pardon was prevented by a court order and the PPP distanced itself from any attempt to amend the blasphemy law, Mr Taseer kept criticising it publicly. Human rights groups say the law is often exploited by religious conservatives as well as ordinary people to settle personal scores. But the law has widespread support in a country that is more than 95 per cent Muslim, and most politicians are loath to be seen as soft on the defence of Islam. Taseer, however, was an outspoken critic. Ms Jahangir criticised the blasphemy law in its present form and observed that laws should be made to protect religious minorities and not to provide a tool to some people to exploit it in the name of religion. Sherry Rehman, Tahira Abdullah and Ali Hassan, rejected the blasphemy law as discriminatory and called for either repealing or suitably amending it.

The big question is what other laws or powers by state in this country are not misused. Here are few examples, where laws are flouted and yet all so called moderates, human rights activists have not uttered any voice but only Blasphemy case.

Pursuant to Art. 265 the Constitution came into force on August 14, 1973, referred to in the said Article as the ‘Commencing day’. The Constitution was held in abeyance by the Proclamation of Martial Law issued by General M. Zia-ul-Haq on July 5, 1977 and published in the Gazette of Pakistan, Extraordinary Part I, at page 411, on the said date. The whole of Pakistan once again came under the control of the Armed Forces of Pakistan on October 12, 1999, by virtue of the Proclamation of Emergency issued by General Pervez Musharraf, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee and Chief of Army Staff, on October 14, 1999 and published in the Gazette of Pakistan, Extraordinary Part I, at page 1265, on the said date. The Pakistani daily Dawn — a pro-US paper not known for its anti-war stance — reports that US drones killed over 700 civilians in 44 bombings since Obama took office in January 2009. Of the 44 attacks, only five succeeded in hitting their target. In other words, Obama has surpassed his predecessor’s murderous record in Pakistan. (Of course these attacks are carried out with the complicity of Pakistan’s ruling elites — as Jane Mayer reported, and as Pervez Musharraf confessed — and are cheered on by native informers such as Ahmed Rashid). For more than half a century Kashmir, or Paradise on Earth as it is called, has suffered due to the extremely brutal Indian occupation. Since 1988 over 80 000 civilians including women and children have died at the hands of the Indian army and paramilitary forces. Their crime? They want India to end the brutal occupation of Kashmir, their homeland. The saga of missing persons seems to be getting more and more complicated with every passing day as the governments, whether federal or provincial, political parties and parliament are simply incapable or indifferent to providing the needed support to the Supreme Court to keep intelligence agencies under check and to make them behave as per the law of the land. The latest report from a Sindh village near Moro in which two couples were shot dead, and a woman was allegedly abducted, reinforces the need for taking practical measures that go beyond expressing outrage. Part of the reason why violence against women continues, and is tolerated as a fact of life, is that many sitting in our legislatures espouse the same tribal values that prescribe the death penalty, particularly for women who dare to make a decision to marry out of their own free will. According to the report, a total of 1,981 people — 1,726 men, 177 women and 78 children — were killed last year. The data does not include those killed in road accidents. Of the 447 victims of targeted killings, 215 were killed apparently for their association with major political, religious and nationalist parties, 187 for their ethnic background and 23 on sectarian grounds. In the recent past, a number of sitting and former representatives of the government has been accused of serious corruption. It is general perception that the corruption culture more flourish in PPP regimes. The glaring proof of absence of the rule of law in this regime is clear from the last-one year mega corruption cases of National Insurance Corporation, Pakistan Steel Mills and Rental Power Plants which have been taken up by the Supreme court. The fake degrees issue has most politicians and their party bigwigs scampering around to avoid potential political fallout. But Nawab Muhammad Aslam Raisani is not one of them. “A degree is a degree, whether fake or genuine,” said the swashbuckling chief minister of Balochistan. Siddiqui's supporters, including international human rights organizations, have claimed that Siddiqui was not an extremist and that she and her young children were illegally detained, interrogated and tortured by Pakistani intelligence or U.S. authorities or both during her five-year disappearance. The U.S. and Pakistan governments have denied all such claims. The CCP’s investigation proves the presence of a strong sugar mafia in the country. Despite ample availability of sugar, it is being sold at Rs125 to 135 per kilogramme against a production cost of less than Rs55 per kg.

Sixth, Why Salman Taseer was so outraged and Why Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri was compelled to do what he did? Why both took the matter of Aaasia Bibi in their own hands when the matter was being probed into and was in the court to decide?

We claim to be Muslims and that means we have accepted the authority of Allah (SWT) and we have submitted all our wishes to the wish of Allah (SWT) so it is pertinent to know What Allah (SWT) says about Islam, Love of Prophet (PBUH) and our behavior towards that.

O ye who believe! enter into Islam whole-heartedly; and follow not the footsteps of the Evil One; for he is to you an avowed enemy. (Aya 208 of Sura Al-Baqara)

Those to whom We have given the Book rejoice at what hath been revealed unto thee: but there are among the clans those who reject a part thereof. Say: "I am commanded to worship Allah and not to join partners with Him. Unto Him do I call and unto Him is my return." (Aya 36 of Sura Ar-Ra’d)

Once you are in Islam then accept all opf it rather than the part you like and reject the part you dislike.

Allah and His angels send blessings on the Prophet: O ye that believe! send ye blessings on him and salute him with all respect. Those who annoy Allah and his Apostle Allah has cursed them in this world and in the Hereafter and has prepared for them a humiliating Punishment. (Ayat 56-57 of Sura Al-Ahzab)

Love for the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is a measure of one's iman (faith and inner conviction) and our iman is completed and perfected only when our love for the Prophet exceeds our love for everything else in this world, including our own lives. The Holy Qur'an says: "The Prophet is preferable for the believers even to their own selves..." (Aya 6 of Sura Al-Ahzab)

Narrated 'Abd Allah bin Hisham: 'We were with the Prophet (SAAW) and he was holding the hand of 'Umar ibnu Al-Khattab (RAA). 'Umar said to him, "O Allah's Messenger (SAAW)! You are dearer to me than everything except my ownself." Allah's Messenger (SAAW) said: "No, by Him in Whose Hand my soul is, (you will not have complete Faith) untill I am dearer to you than your ownself." Then 'Umar (RAA) said: "However, now, by Allah, you are dearer to me than my ownself." He (SAAW) then said: "Now, O 'Umar, (now you are a believer)."

The (Prophet) frowned and turned away. Because there came to him the blind man (interrupting). (Ayat 1-2 of Sura Abasa)

There is no anger against beloved Prophet. Those who take these verses as a disgrace to the Prophet and desires to lower his prestige are on wrong thinking and misguided. Farooque-Azam Hazrat Umar (RAA) came to know that an Imam (Person leading in prayer) recites always this chapter, he sent a man to behead such person as he used to recite the chapter for defaming the prophet. Such a man goes out of Islam and becomes apostate.

The matter of Aasia Bibi was then sub-judice and as a representative of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, as the official name of the country is, then Salman Taseer was not supposed to comment on it let alone going to the extent of calling the law as “Black Law”. He was not functioning as he should be as head of a province in whose territory such incident happened. He should have referred the matter for suitable amendment in the law to competent authority rather than calling names and showing his anger. He took the matter in his own hands because he thought he is correct and all others are wrong or he had no confidence in the legal course of action.

Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri also took the matter in his own hand because he thought that Govt. is not up to the mark and Salman Taseer, the Governor, has no respect for the prophet because he was only vocal on this issue at the expense of many other pressing issues. He also had no confidence in the legal course of action. Because Govt. was fully tilted towards one end.

So why people took matters in their own hands than seeking legal remedy?

There is a sense in which conduct regarded as criminal is often quite the opposite. Far from being an intentional violation of a prohibition, much crime is moralistic and involves the pursuit of justice. It is a mode of conflict management, possibly a form of punishment, even capital punishment. Viewed in relation to law, it is self-help. To the degree that it defines or responds to the conduct of some one else-the victim-as deviant, crime is social control. It should be clear, however, that the victims of moralistic crime may be entirely unaware of why they have been selected, especially when the offender is unknown. Such crimes may therefore be understood as secret social control . In modern society the state has only theoretically achieved a monopoly over the legitimate use of violence. In reality, violence flourishes (particularly in modern America), and most of it involves ordinary citizens who seemingly view their conduct as a perfectly legitimate exercise of social control. It might therefore be observed that the struggle between law and self-help in the West did not end in the Middle Ages, as legal historians claim.It continues. Many people still "take the law into their own hands."

The idea that violence is associated with statelessness still enjoys considerable support. With various refinements and qualifications, an absence of state authority has been used to explain high levels of violence in settings as diverse as the highlands of New Guinea, Lake Titicaca in the Andes, and western Sicily. It has also been used to explain war and, other violent self-help in international relations. A version of the same approach may be relevant to an understanding of self-help in modern society.

In the end, the conclusion that emerges from above discussion is that state failed to perform its functions. Had the state taken serious notice of the case, conduct of Salman Taseer the following events would not have happened.