Pakistan enhanced security for President Mamnoon Hussain and restricted his family’s movement as he is about the take a crucial decision on the mercy appeal of Malik Mumtaz Qadri — the self-confessed
Pakistan enhanced security for President Mamnoon Hussain and restricted his family’s movement as he is about the take a crucial decision on the mercy appeal of Malik Mumtaz Qadri — the self-confessed killer of Punjab’s former governor Salman Taseer.
The President is currently enjoying security under the “Blue Category” — the highest security measures provided to a person. Despite this, security of the President has been further strengthened before the decision on the mercy appeal.
Last year, one of the President’s sons, Salman Mamnoon, escaped a bomb attack on his convoy in Hub by the Baloch Liberation Army. Religious parties have also threatened to take severe action if Mumtaz Qadri is not released. His mercy petition is lying pending and President Hussain will decide his ultimate fate.
Leaders of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazal), Jamaat-e-Islami, Jamaat-e-Ahle Sunnat, Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan, Jamat-e-Ahle Hadis, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Sami), Marak-e-Ahle Sunna have all declared support for Mumtaz Qadri. “It will have dire consequences for the country,” said Jamaat-e-Ahle Sunnat leader Allama Noorul Haq Qadri. “It just needs one Friday announcement to mobilise people,” he added.
He is of the opinion that the Council of Islamic Ideology should have been consulted before the verdict was issued. JI leader Mohammed Ibrahim is on record asking for his immediate release. The JI leader was also quoted in the media, saying that “the fire that would engulf the nation after the execution of Qadri would be out of control”.
The JI leader also warned “President Mamnoon Hussain and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to protect themselves from the wrath of people.” Qadri is a former police commando and self-confessed killer of governor Salman Taseer whom he killed in Islamabad’s Kohsar Market in 2011 for supporting Asia Bibi, a blasphemy victim.
He is popular among lawyers and religious group who claim that he was on the right path. His conviction and death sentence were up held by the high court and Supreme Court prompting religious groups to threaten the government to release him.
The killing of Salman Taseer has landed the government into a serious dilemma. Will the President reject the mercy petition of a self-confessed murderer and plunge the government into perpetual conflict with the religious militants or pardon him and set a precedent for militants to take the law into their own hands and interpret Islam according to their whims
The Qadri case is a litmus test for the government — pardoning murders would not help eradicate fanaticism and terrorism from the country. The government is trying to promote its soft image abroad while religious fanatics murder and harass minorities at home without any fear of government action.
The government needs to take serious decision and ensure that its citizens particularly minorities don’t fall prey to false accusations and to death by religious fanatics — only the Council of Islamic Ideology or the parliament has a remedy for resolving the issues related to abuse of the law.
The controversial law of Blasphemy section 295 C was drafted by a senior advocate of the Supreme Court Ismail Qureshi in 1986. Mr Qureshi drafted Section 295-C providing the death sentence as the only punishment for blasphemy and got it tabled in the National Assembly in 1986 through lawmaker Nisar Fatima of the JI. Most parliamentarians and clerics have disagreed on including death plenty as the only punishment to blasphemy.
