Fanaticism’s coup d’etat

by Farooq Sulehria

It is not the murder of Salman Taseer that has shocked-and-scared urban majority in Pakistan into either an apparent silence or a plain indifference. It is not even the assassin’s maliciously triumphant smile that has left many speechless. It is ceaselessly mediatised threats and heartless puritan celebrations by a freemasonry of fiery anchorpersons, jingoist columnists and rejected bearded politicians that have created an atmosphere of fear-and-eerie-silence. For the first time, PPP’s fearless workers, the idiomatic Jiyalas, have been scared into political-hibernation. Even if thousands attended Taseer’s funeral and Jiyalas in Lahore initially took to streets in a defiant mood, chanting anti-mullah slogans, the PPP government capitulated, unsurprisingly. The PPP leadership has given up struggle since long. It keeps striking deals and wrap up shameless compromises. …

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