Missing the opportunity
Pakistan PM’s U-turn on the Asia Bibi acquittal, capitulation to hardliners, confirm apprehensions of his critics
For Pakistan, and even beyond its borders, the dangers of relying on religion for political ends are becoming starkly clear from the Asia Bibi episode.
On October 31, the Supreme Court of Pakistan took a monumental decision, against the grain of recent history in that country. By acquitting Asia Bibi, a Christian woman convicted of blasphemy on the flimsiest of grounds by a sessions court — a decision that was upheld by the Lahore High Court — the country’s apex court showed great courage. It was ostensibly for questioning her conviction that former Punjab Governor Salman Taseer and former Minority Affairs Minister Shahbaz Bhatti were assassinated. Unfortunately, the principled stand displayed by Pakistan’s judiciary has not been mirrored by the political class and, particularly, by Prime Minister Imran Khan.
On the evening of October 31, in the face of widespread protests perceived to be organised in part by the hardline Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), Khan stood by the court’s verdict, eloquently defending the decision both on religious and constitutional grounds and promised action against protestors if they continued to “disturb” society and government. His words came at a time when the TLP and others were inciting violence against the government and even asking “pious” army officers to revolt. But even as large sections of Pakistan and people around the world welcomed the prime minister’s stand, Khan capitulated. Within two days, the government signed a deal with the protestors, promising that Asia Bibi — who is now legally a free person — will not be allowed to leave the country.
In his three months in office, this is Imran Khan’s second visible cave-in. Earlier, he asked Princeton professor Atif Mian to resign from his Economic Advisory Council when hardline elements, notably the TLP, objected to the latter’s Ahmadi heritage. It is important to remember that the TLP did not win a single seat in the recently held elections in Pakistan. Its single-point agenda is implementation of the draconian blasphemy law, its purpose to target minorities and those who disagree with a particular interpretation of Islam. That such political forces have still not been mainstreamed through the people’s mandate holds a ray of hope for Pakistan’s polity. The apex court’s decision also illustrated that some institutions have still not given in to the politics of blackmail and brinkmanship that the fundamentalists are engaged in. When Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf emerged as the single-largest party, its cultivation of religious hardliners had been cause for apprehension. For Pakistan, and even beyond its borders, the dangers of relying on religion for political ends are becoming starkly clear from the Asia Bibi episode: Sooner or later, such a politics undermines state sovereignty, constitutional morality and the rule of law.
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