By SHEHRBANO TASEER

Published in International Herald Tribune, January 8, 2011

TWENTY-SEVEN. That’s the number of bullets a police guard fired into my father before surrendering himself with a sinister smile to the policemen around him. Salmaan Taseer, governor of Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province, was assassinated on Tuesday — my brother Shehryar’s 25th birthday — outside a market near our family home in Islamabad.

The guard accused of the killing, Mumtaz Qadri, was assigned that morning to protect my father while he was in the federal capital. According to officials, around 4:15 p.m., as my father was about to step into his car after lunch, Mr. Qadri opened fire.

Mr. Qadri and his supporters may have felled a great oak that day, but they are sadly mistaken if they think they have succeeded in silencing my father’s voice or the voices of millions like him who believe in the secular vision of Pakistan’s founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

My father’s life was one of struggle. He was a self-made man, who made and lost and remade his fortune. He was among the first members of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party when it was founded by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in the late 1960s. He was an intellectual, a newspaper publisher and a writer; he was jailed and tortured for his belief in democracy and freedom. The vile dictatorship of Gen. Mohammad Zia ul-Haq did not take kindly to his pamphleteering for the restoration of democracy.

One particularly brutal imprisonment was in a dungeon at Lahore Fort, this city’s Mughal-era citadel. My father was held in solitary confinement for months and was slipped a single meal of half a plate of stewed lentils each day. They told my mother, in her early 20s at the time, that he was dead. She never believed that.

Determined, she made friends with the kind man who used to sweep my father’s cell and asked him to pass a note to her husband. My father later told me he swallowed the note, fearing for the sweeper’s life. He scribbled back a reassuring message to my mother: “I’m not made from a wood that burns easily.” That is the kind of man my father was. He could not be broken.

He often quoted verse by his uncle Faiz Ahmed Faiz, one of Urdu’s greatest poets. “Even if you’ve got shackles on your feet, go. Be fearless and walk. Stand for your cause even if you are martyred,” wrote Faiz. Especially as governor, my father was the first to speak up and stand beside those who had suffered, from the thousands of people displaced by the Kashmir earthquake in 2005 to the family of two teenage brothers who were lynched by a mob last August in Sialkot after a dispute at a cricket match.

After 86 members of the Ahmadi sect, considered blasphemous by fundamentalists, were murdered in attacks on two of their mosques in Lahore last May, to the great displeasure of the religious right my father visited the survivors in the hospital. When the floods devastated Pakistan last summer, he was on the go, rallying businessmen for aid, consoling the homeless and building shelters.

My father believed that the strict blasphemy laws instituted by General Zia have been frequently misused and ought to be changed. His views were widely misrepresented to give the false impression that he had spoken against Prophet Mohammad. This was untrue, and a criminal abdication of responsibility by his critics, who must now think about what they have caused to happen. According to the authorities, my father’s stand on the blasphemy law was what drove Mr. Qadri to kill him.

There are those who say my father’s death was the final nail in the coffin for a tolerant Pakistan. That Pakistan’s liberal voices will now be silenced. But we buried a heroic man, not the courage he inspired in others. This week two leading conservative politicians — former Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and the cricket-star-turned-politician Imran Khan — have taken the same position my father held on the blasphemy laws: they want amendments to prevent misuse.

To say that there was a security lapse on Tuesday is an understatement. My father was brutally gunned down by a man hired to protect him. Juvenal once asked, “Who will guard the guards themselves?” It is a question all Pakistanis should ask themselves today: If the extremists could get to the governor of the largest province, is anyone safe?

It may sound odd, but I can’t imagine my father dying in any other way. Everything he had, he invested in Pakistan, giving livelihoods to tens of thousands, improving the economy. My father believed in our country’s potential. He lived and died for Pakistan. To honor his memory, those who share that belief in Pakistan’s future must not stay silent about injustice. We must never be afraid of our enemies. We must never let them win.

Died for Pakistan !
We,being a pakistni nation always like to die for pakistan,but we never tried to think well for pakistan,to do work for pakistan,to make pakistan a properious country.We have never used our Authority for Pakistan,If we did any work or job that is only for"myself".

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"Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength".Key to Success.......

We can not deny Taseer the adjective Brave.

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There will always be a You-like hole in my life.

:@SHEHRBANO TASEER

for God sake ..is he really died for pakistan ? ohh pls dont...as a governer he could change the living of common man,working for the prosperity of province but m sorry...it wasnt like that..all he did in his Governership to critise punjab government..v cant forget his words..on daily basis abusing muslim league nawaz and praising ZARDARI...

and same ZARDARI for whom he died didnt bother to attend his funeral...

Your father died for ZARDARI ...

Recite Holy Quran and pray for the peace of his soul.pray for his life after death.Allah is merciful and beneficent .
Oh Allah help us .

now SHEHRBANO TASEER will teach us islam,just go through youtube then this article wont impress anyone.
Allah forgive us .

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Forget safety.Live where you fear to live.Destroy your reputation.Be notorious

@imbindas

What Sheherbano Taseer does in private is none of our business. Despite of her liberal outlook she can hold views on Islam just like any of us. I don't think she is trying to teach Islam to us. Instead she has put up a robust defense for her slain father.

Taseer may have been a close confidante of Zardari but there is no doubt that he was killed for criticising an unjust law. He had the guts to call a spade a spade. What he said about blasphemy laws is being repeated by conservative politicians like Imran Khan today. Also his stance towards Qadianis as well as his decision not to compromise with the brutal dictator Zia is commendable. Also, he made his fortune from business while staying out of politics unlike many other politicians.

If he loved Pakistan so much that he died for it, then why he didn't live for it? What he did for a common pakistani? we appreciate that he raised voice for minorities but what he did for Muslims? lets forget about religion, what he did for common men? suicide index is raising with every passing day because of economic hardships. If he had choice to die for Pakistan or to fled country, we know better about his choice. He did not die for Pakistan, its just that death thrust upon him and he had no other choice and we have a national tradition of making heroes after their deaths.

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"One who imagines himself to be all knowing will surely suffer on account of his ignorance" - Imam Ali (AS)



"Among the signs of ignorance is arguing with irrational people" - Imam Hussain (AS)

I endorse the opinion of sandhurst.

@imbindas

A healthy discourse never gets embroiled in personal details of any individual to prove any point. And a true muslim never defames any person. It is also requested to show some compassion and regard to the bereaved daughter. Exercise restraint on your 'religious' emotions and try to be logical and rationale.

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Saad Bin Rafiq

Agreed with bifokeen, sandhurst and shehrbano.

Whatever Taseer did in his life might be open to question, but he sure did die for a free Pakistan where no Mullah would be able to butcher a minority just because of his faith. My belief is that he will be rewarded for this deed of his by God.

I am also agreed with Bifokeen, Sandhurst, Saad & Shehrbano Taseer.

The important point in this incident is that, if Salman Taseer had done anything wrong then why didn't these so-called Mullahs file a petition against him in court. But Qadri took law in his hands. He thought himself as judge and done this foolish act. And our Mullahs are also favoring him for his act. They are only promoting sectarianism. If this Mullahism is not controlled then there will be a civil war in the country.

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Kon Kehta hy k Main Gum-naam ho jaon ga
Main tu aik Baab hn Tareekh mein Likha jaon ga

I second DESPOT in his views, what good he has done for the masses in his political career of over 40 years? Can u name the people who got affected by this law? Hundreds of innocent people dies in the suicide blasts, drone attacks, target killings etc etc, why didn't he raised a voice for those people? Why this double standard?

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It's lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges, and I believe in myself!!!!