File photo of slain governor of Punjab Salman Taseer.
On 4th January 2011, the highly influential former governor Punjab Salman Taseer was killed by his own security guard, Mumtaz Qadri. The killer took a plea that he killed Taseer out of love of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Mr. Qadri alleged that Taseer had dishonoured the Prophet and that is why it was his religious obligation to kill him.
In a country like Pakistan, the reaction to this murder was not unexpected. All the liberal and secular groups condemned Mumtaz Qadri while the Mullahs, majority of whom consider Muhammad Ali Jinnah an infidel and Bait-u-llah Mahsood a martyr, declared Mumtaz qadri the biggest lover of the Prophet.
They came on roads in his favour and broke not only the laws of the country but also the laws of Islam. It looked like the religion was completely hijacked by these fanatic Mullahs, which is not true. Pakistan has immensely talented religious scholars such as Dr. Tahir ul Qadri, Tariq Jameel, Javeed Ahmed Ghamdi to name a few. Unfortunately however, all of these venerated scholars kept quiet and didn’t do much to handle this controversial matter by letting the people know about the true teachings of Islam.
The case of Taseer’s murder was registered and Mumtaz Qadri confessed before the court that he had killed Taseer. He took the plea that he killed him out of pure love for Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and had no remorse by doing this act. This statement made him a hero overnight for all the religious political parties who used this issue for their political purposes.
Former justice High Court, Mian Nazir Akhtar, announced to represent Mumtaz Qadri in this case which gave more hype to the issue. However, the question is, did the former justice consider the teachings of Islam before announcing to represent this self-made lover of Prophet, or he too just listened to his emotions and put justice on the back burner?
Media anchors raised many queries regarding Mumtaz Qadri’s case to Mian Nazir. All his answers were reflective of the typical religious mindset. Nobody dared to ask him how many similar cases had he presided over while he was still justice of the high court? Did he still consider those people innocent who arbitrarily killed people in the so-called love of the Prophet? No body asked him this.
Mian Nazir simply tried to get a relief for his client by using religious sentiments. When the court rejected the baseless grounds and sentenced Qadri with a death penalty, all of his followers including his famous lawyer raised finger on the character of the court. They argued that why Raymond Davis and Sharukh Jatoi was released and raised question on the court’s silence on corruption cases.
Their plea was that if Davis and Jatoi could be released then why should they face execution. When infact in both Raymond Davis and Sharukh Jatoi’s cases the family of the deceased had pardoned the killers while Qadri’s case it was not the case.
They also argued that since Article 248 protected Salman Taseer from criminal proceedings that is why Mumtaz qadri resorted to taking the law in his own hands instead of filing a complaint against the governor. However, all of these arguments didn’t hold ground before the court of law. The court decided that there was no evidence to suggest that Mr. Salman Taseer disrespected Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and so any argument to justify his killing does not hold ground.
Alas! These fanatics are ready to kill anyone even on a false allegation of dishonouring Prophet (PBUH). Taseer and Qadri both have passed away but the law of Blasphemy is still trapped in the hands of some politically motivated Mullahs who use it for their personal interests. The basis of Islam is justice while the basis of Islam for these fanatics seems to be only emotions.
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