Has Pakistan responded to Salman Taseer’s death appropriately?

Pakistan has been taken by surprise by the support given to his killer. The killing of Salman, a dear friend, indicates that extremist elements have spread to large parts of the community. By this, I mean the doctors, lawyers and the so-called intellectuals; this segment of the larger liberal society has been divided. The killing has polarised society through raising the question of blasphemy. Naturally, people are going to take sides. This poses the biggest challenge to a stable Pakistan, losing its liberals. In fact, Salman’s death marks a watershed in Pakistani politics, more of a watershed than Benazir Bhutto’s death was. Her death united society, here we see the opposite — a divided Pakistan. Now people fear copy cat killing of liberal intellectuals. This poses Pakistan with another challenge.

The establishment has been slow to react, what do you

make of this?

Pakistan Peoples Party has backtracked. They have failed to

defend Salman appropriately and by doing so, they have forsaken liberal values. Not many from the civil society are putting up a defence. Former information minister, Sherry Rahman, is putting up a fair defence, but that’s one voice. As for her bill (it proposes to reform the draconian blasphemy laws), it is unlikely it’ll go through. So, the situation is likely to worsen.

What of the military, of Kayani? Does he have a long-term strategy?

Currently, the military is obsessed with (first) Afghanistan and the Taliban and (second) India. Therefore and unfortunately, the army is not taking the domestic situation seriously. In fact, with Taliban’s increasing power, the high command is deeply concerned, (it’s a threat) that could arouse sympathies. They are worried that these sympathies are penetrating the security services. Kayani has an Afghan-obsessed agenda.

What about Indo-Pak relations?

It is unlikely Kayani will reach a compromise with India. He sees India as an activist army, an enemy. This is a problem for Pakistan as well. Unfortunately, the army is not looking at domestic issues. It must make peace with its neighbours — this is a view I have long held. Pakistan’s social crisis cannot be solved without peace with its neighbours.

The situation in Pakistan is dire — we’re in a complete economic crisis. Of course, the only real (and potential) investor could be India. We need to bring an end to this isolation. India is investing across the world; it can in Pakistan too. The liberal society, the industrialists, are crying for engagement. When relations were normalised five years ago (under Musharraf), we feared Indian products would swamp out markets but, Indians like our products too. The old fear, that India would swallow us economically, is no more. In fact,

renewable energy is a key issue that India and Pakistan can cooperate in. We are both short of energy — we both need pipelines for instance. These are common problems and this (economics) can unite us. We need dialogue.

What of the radicalisation of the youth and punishment for the perpetrators of 26/11?

The radicalisation that we see has been going on since the 1980s since the madarsas took root. But during that period people — in the establishment — did not give enough focus to them. This development now has become hugely disruptive. The state did not provide adequate educational reform, the syllabus has not been drafted adequately.