The PPP is the Kamran Akmal of public relations. Put its representatives behind a microphone and they will flail and fumble over their words. It is one of the conundrums of our time, on a par with the continued existence and relevance of Zaid Hamid, how the likes of Rehman Malik can continue displaying rank insensitivity and political cowardice.
After the unsurprising yet shocking assassination of minorities minister Shahbaz Bhatti, the interior minister decided to make the brutal slaying all about himself. He wanted to assure the inquiring media not that the killers would be apprehended and brought to justice but that none of this was his fault. Washing your hands off something is one thing. Rehman Malik rinsed his hands with soap, bleached his fingernails and rubbed anti-septic all over his palms.
As an act of cowardice, Malik disavowing any responsibility for the security of Bhatti was an epic performance. He began by claiming that Bhatti had chosen not to stay in the parliamentary lodged, finding a rented home with his parents more secure. Malik also stressed that Bhatti voluntarily refused extra security. Never mind that the reason Bhatti felt so insecure was because the government had done nothing after Salmaan Taseer’s murder to ensure that government guards were loyal to their bosses and not demagogic preachers.
After the governor’s assassination at the hands of his ostensible protectors, two PPP members were considered to be at the most risk. One, Shahbaz Bhatti, who has now been successfully eliminated and the other, Sherry Rehman, who still does not have the kind of security that would inspire confidence. And yet, Rehman Malik would have us believe, this was all Bhatti’s fault.
Picking on Rehman Malik is easy but not entirely useful. The behaviour he has displayed over the last week is a mere symptom of the fear felt by the PPP leadership. The timidity shown by the party in the wake of Taseer’s murder is unprecedented. Forget repealing the blasphemy law, the interior minister (who once again proudly showed off the worst instincts of his party with his unhinged rhetoric) declared that he would personally wring the neck of any blasphemer. This would be akin to George W Bush insisting that he would torture in Guantanamo anyone who said an unkind word about Muslim terrorists.
What makes the PPP’s inaction so galling is not that we expect them to take instant action on the misuse of the blasphemy laws. After Benazir’s two stints in power, the one thing we have learned is that the PPP will not back up its rhetoric with achievement. But now even the courageous rhetoric has vanished, replaced either with stony silence or, worse, a focus on the grievances of the murderers not the murdered.
Here’s one way to measure the fear of the PPP leadership. Since the Aasiya Bibi case first made a media splash, Imran Khan and Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain have confessed that perhaps the blasphemy laws need to be reconsidered. Asif Zardari, Yousuf Raza Gilani and Rehman Malik, on the contrary, have not even expressed the level of ambivalence shown by these two politicians who relied on the MMA in the 2003 elections. This doesn’t mean Imran and Shujaat are more liberal than the PPP leaders. It only proves that they are not as cowardly.
History has judged that British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was the greatest appeaser that ever existed. If Chamberlain had the PPP leadership negotiating for him, he would have ended up delivering Britain to Hitler gift-wrapped on a silver platter.
Nadir Hassan is a journalist based in Karachi and can be found on Twitter.
The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.
