KARACHI, Pakistan — The tightening grip of Islamist extremism in Pakistan was violently highlighted Tuesday with the assassination of one of the country’s most outwardly progressive politicians by one of his police guards, who told investigators he was incensed by his boss’s stance against a controversial anti-blasphemy law.
The guard proudly surrendered to police afterward, according to local news reports.
The killing of Salman Taseer, the razor-tongued governor of Punjab province, stunned the nation and further rocked Taseer’s ruling Pakistan People’s Party, which is struggling to keep its government afloat after its key ally’s defection to the opposition Sunday. The secular PPP condemned the slaying and promised a swift investigation, but its weakened political position undermines its ability to loudly defend Taseer’s views or crack down on extremists.
In timing that underscored those limitations, Taseer was gunned down in an upscale area of Islamabad as Pakistan’s main opposition party was across town demanding that the government agree within three days to implement a list of reforms or risk collapse. After the killing, the Pakistan Muslim League-N, led by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, said it would allow three additional days for the changes, including a slash in government spending and the reversal of unpopular fuel price hikes.
Taseer was a chief ally of President Asif Ali Zardari, who in 2008 appointed him governor of Punjab, Pakistan’s most-populous and wealthiest province. But the PML-N rules the province, making Taseer’s assassination a blow to government influence there.
As the embattled, pro-U.S. PPP sought in recent days to win back defecting allies that also include a small Islamic party, it had already said it would not support a proposal to change the blasphemy statutes. That left Taseer one of the few vocal champions of the move, which hard-line religious organizations had labeled a Western conspiracy.
The laws have drawn scrutiny since a Christian woman was sentenced to death in November for criticizing the Muslim prophet Muhammad.
