Salman Taseer: Champion of secular democracy

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The ghastly assassination of Governor of Punjab Salman Taseer is a great loss for the Pakistani nation, Pakistan People's Party, President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani and the government. He was brave, courageous and daring-a great man who spoke for the rights of the people including minorities. He was totally committed to the high democratic ideals and the egalitarian vision of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and martyred Benazir Bhutto.

Salman was held in highest esteem by the people who respected his boldness to proclaim loud and clear that he believed in liberal and secular politics. He was targeted for elimination for having defended the rights of minorities against the black and discriminatory laws introduced by dictator General Ziaul Haq to terrorise the people into submission to his totalitarian rule.

I have had the distinction of knowing him closely for 30 years as an unflinching fighter for democracy and defender of the rights of the people. He not only braved worst persecution and prosecution at the hands of anti-democratic forces in power. He was tortured and given third degree treatment for his commitment to democracy. His tragic demise - a sacrifice in blood -- at this critical juncture when Pakistan is carrying on a battle to do or die to defend Islam's pristine values of compassion and tolerance, to save the county from falling a victim to extremism-has carved for him a permanent niche in the hall of fame of those great leaders who preferred death to surrendering to the obscurantist forces. As such he has become immortal.

Besides being a political activists of the highest calibre, in his prime of life he was not only at the top of his profession as a chartered accountant of international fame, he as well made his mark as a leading entrepreneur and contributed immensely in objective and bold journalism through his newspaper Daily Times, Weekly Friday Times, TV channels Auj Aur Kal and Business Plus.

As a politician he had been a member of the Punjab provincial assembly, suffered long periods of incarceration, braved torture inflicted on him in the dungeon of notorious Lahore's Old Fort-a hell on earth.

The entire nation shares the pain and profound grief of Mrs Taseer and family. We stand by the family in this tragic hour. We shall always remember him by rededicating to his high ideals and pledge that his commitment to truth will be the agenda to follow - to pull out extremism from its roots -- after all its perpetrators have penetrated deeply into our otherwise peaceful society.

His sacrifice will be remembered as a land mark in the ongoing battle for survival of Pakistan and to return to the Quiad's vision. We will have to separate religion from politics. Those anti-Pakistan elements that create and nurture extremists and jihadis and the politicians and the people in media who support religious extremists and incite violence as accomplices to extremism shall have to be isolated. This is the need of the hour. If we remain complacent and follow a policy of appeasement of running with the hare and hunting with the hound-we will end up sliding down the eddy of doom, every one will perish.

Salman Taseer, it is rightly observed was deeply preoccupied with the consequences of the support to the extremists from the days of General Zia. As a brave man and a devout follower of the Quaid, Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and martyred Benazir Bhutto -- a victim of terrorists and those in power behind them - his warnings were very apt: "Beware of the mullahs. They have to be confronted or they will take over our lives."

Taseer was a trusted associate of martyred Benazir Bhutto. According to leading columnist/author Ahmed Rashed: "Taseer could talk for hours on his favourite subject: the price that Pakistan had paid for jihad and the need to turn back from this "deadly legacy".

When Zulfikar Ali Bhutto took to challenging the well-entrenched forces of status quo, Salman became his staunch supporter and later after ZAB's judicial murder he joined his daughter Benazir Bhutto to continue the democratic mission of her father and to save Pakistan from falling into the hands of religious extremists god-fathered by General Zia.

Seeing political commitment in him Benazir Bhutto put him as PP party's candidate in 1988 general elections. Taseer won the seat in the Punjab provincial legislature, riding the wave of popularity for the young Benazir Bhutto. Throughout his life he remained a dauntless and fearless follower of Benazir Bhutto and opposed tooth and nail all the anti-democratic forces including General Zia's "baqiyat" (heirs to Zia's egacy).

Salman made his mark as an outstanding secularist in a country when there were very few who could speak out for fear of intimidating religious extremists. In a Financial Times interview in November last he insisted - with both pride and defensiveness - that Pakistan would not go the way of Afghanistan. "Pakistan is a vibrant democracy," he stoutly believed. "It has an educated middle class, a civilian government and a free press."

Like his leader Benazir Bhutto Salman did not fear fear. Many times he was warned that "they were after him". Always he brushed the death threats aside with contempt. Following Benair's footsteps, he preferred to do and die for the cause that was dear to him - secular democracy, empowerment of the poor, women and less privileged.