On his Twitter page hours before his assassination, Salman Taseer, the late Governor of Pakistan's Punjab, wrote:
Mera azm itna bulund hai, Mujhe paraye sholon se dar nahin. Mujhe khauf atish e gul se hai, Yeh kahin chaman ko jala na dein//
An outspoken critic of Pakistan's blasphemy laws, most people with humanity and sanity in the country say, is often set upon by extremists and commoners in equal measure to settle personal scores. Salman Taseer infuriated the right-wingers after he called the laws “a slur on the constitution.”
The barefaced broad daylight shooting took place at the Kohsar Shopping Centre in Islamabad’s posh F6 Sector, minutes from where Taseer had a home in the capital city. The culprit, his bodyguard, emptied two full magazines of LMG from a very close range.
Qadri, the bodyguard, told investigators that he had planned the assassination after Taseer sided with Aasia Bibi, a Christian woman on death row for blasphemy, and spoke against the blasphemy laws. Recently, Taseer visited Aasia Bibi in prison in a campaign for her release. He wrote on his Twitter page just last Friday: “I was under huge pressure sure 2 cow down b4 rightist pressure on blasphemy. Refused. Even if I’m the last man standing.”
It will be a shame for Jinnah's Pakistan if he turns out to be really the last man standing.
Taseer, a liberal and magnetic politician, was one of the most moderate voices in the ruling PPP. A natty dresser with jet black hair, Taseer was a pleasant sight to see. He was a thorough up-to-date politician and was very active and prolific user of Twitter as a medium for his courageous views.
I still remember my meeting with Taseer at the Governor's house in Lahore just a year back, along with a few other Indian journalists. He was bang on time to meet us. Draped in a spotless white salwar-kameez and a black galaband, he smelt of 'Davidoff Cool Water' from a distance. With his prominent Indo-Nordic features and a clean-shaven face, he could have made any women-of-taste weak in her knees.
Journalists of '70s and '80s still remember how Taseer wooed Indian scribe Tavleen Singh while the former was touring India to promote his biography of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. Their marriage didn't last long and left much bitterness, but journos still remember how he swept hard-nut Tavleen off her feet.
I remember his secretary, a dashing Pakistani beauty in the most modern but dignified of dresses, asking us to choose one journalist among us to represent us. The Hindu's Sandeep Dikshit was unanimously chosen to represent us. Dikshit, an extremely well-read and level-minded journalist, was also dressed to the occasion in his white kurta-pyjama. We wanted to put our best in front of our Pakistani host. While Dikshit took the glory, rest of us, me, NDTV's Umashankar Singh and Kashmir Times' Iftikhar Gilani, busied ourselves in admiring the décor of the Governor's house. The jury is still out if that décor included the devastatingly beautiful secretary or not.
But when he entered the hall all of us were spellbound by his personality. Sorry, Sandeep Dikshit, he beat you hands down in the appearance department.
After firm handshakes and bear-hugs we started talking. He had very liberal views on most issues and was a great supporter of the normalisation of relations with India. We cracked some jokes and my my, what an infectious laugh he had. Umashankar Singh wanted a one-on-one interview with him. He was in a tearing hurry, but agreed. While we fumbled with cables, lights and mikes, he waited patiently. In the entire meeting the only whiff of irritation that flashed on his face was when NewsX's Vishal Thapar kept addressing him as “Salman Basheer”. “It's Taseer,” he had hissed.
When he was about to leave he replaced his Gucci reading glasses with the Police Sunglasses. Taseer was a man of taste. I still remember mentioning our meeting to Talat Hussain, Pakistan's most famous TV journalist and anchor. The first question he asked jokingly was, “Did Taseer dazzle you with his sunglasses?” Taseer was a flamboyant man and people loved and hated him for this in equal measure.
Salman Taseer was the son of Muhammad Din Taseer, popularly known as MD Taseer, who was the first Ph.D degree holder in the subcontinent. He got his Ph.D in English Literature from Cambridge University. His thesis was a critical and analytical study of five hundred years of English literature. But what most people don't know is that MD Taseer, as a education inspector in Kashmir, was instrumental in the formation of Sheikh Abdullah's Muslim Conference. He assisted Abdullah in resisting the Dogra rule in the valley. But MD Taseer was also a first rank Urdu poet, a distinguished essayist and a respected English literature critic of his time. But he died with humble belongings.
Salman was a self-made businessman. He began his business career by successfully setting up two chartered accountancy consultancy firms KPMG, United Arab Emirates and Taseer Hadi Khalid and Co, Pakistan. Under him, his group grew remarkably. Taseer also owned the Daily Times newspaper, Business Plus TV channel, Pace shopping malls and the Hyatt hotel range in Pakistan.
But he was never a politically correct politician. He had a long history of struggle against Zia’s dictatorship. After pulling out of politics for years, he returned as the PPP’s voice of reason. He was an avid supporter of the Ahmadi community, which has been persecuted for long in Pakistan and India. His political enmity with the Sharif brothers in Punjab put him in an uncomfortable position as a Governor. But he never let anything affect him.
The Sharifs, on their part, used unfair and untenable ways to discredit him. More often than not, the Sharifs targetted his flamboyant personality, and his and his kin's munificent and reasonably sybaritic—read ‘un-Islamic’— modus vivendi. Photographs of his family enjoying in the privacy of their home were placed under media scrutiny. But Taseer had the old world grace not to get affected by such below-the-belt antics.
While it gives heart that liberal and moderate elements in Pakistan have so strongly reacted to this despicable act of cowardice, it's painful to see the right-wing celebrating his death. I can only remember this line from Punjabi.
Dushman mare te khushi na kariye, sajna vi mar jaana
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Mera azm itna bulund hai, Mujhe paraye sholon se dar nahin. Mujhe khauf atish e gul se hai, Yeh kahin chaman ko jala na dein//
An outspoken critic of Pakistan's blasphemy laws, most people with humanity and sanity in the country say, is often set upon by extremists and commoners in equal measure to settle personal scores. Salman Taseer infuriated the right-wingers after he called the laws “a slur on the constitution.”The barefaced broad daylight shooting took place at the Kohsar Shopping Centre in Islamabad’s posh F6 Sector, minutes from where Taseer had a home in the capital city. The culprit, his bodyguard, emptied two full magazines of LMG from a very close range.
Qadri, the bodyguard, told investigators that he had planned the assassination after Taseer sided with Aasia Bibi, a Christian woman on death row for blasphemy, and spoke against the blasphemy laws. Recently, Taseer visited Aasia Bibi in prison in a campaign for her release. He wrote on his Twitter page just last Friday: “I was under huge pressure sure 2 cow down b4 rightist pressure on blasphemy. Refused. Even if I’m the last man standing.”
It will be a shame for Jinnah's Pakistan if he turns out to be really the last man standing.
Taseer, a liberal and magnetic politician, was one of the most moderate voices in the ruling PPP. A natty dresser with jet black hair, Taseer was a pleasant sight to see. He was a thorough up-to-date politician and was very active and prolific user of Twitter as a medium for his courageous views.
I still remember my meeting with Taseer at the Governor's house in Lahore just a year back, along with a few other Indian journalists. He was bang on time to meet us. Draped in a spotless white salwar-kameez and a black galaband, he smelt of 'Davidoff Cool Water' from a distance. With his prominent Indo-Nordic features and a clean-shaven face, he could have made any women-of-taste weak in her knees.
Journalists of '70s and '80s still remember how Taseer wooed Indian scribe Tavleen Singh while the former was touring India to promote his biography of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. Their marriage didn't last long and left much bitterness, but journos still remember how he swept hard-nut Tavleen off her feet.
I remember his secretary, a dashing Pakistani beauty in the most modern but dignified of dresses, asking us to choose one journalist among us to represent us. The Hindu's Sandeep Dikshit was unanimously chosen to represent us. Dikshit, an extremely well-read and level-minded journalist, was also dressed to the occasion in his white kurta-pyjama. We wanted to put our best in front of our Pakistani host. While Dikshit took the glory, rest of us, me, NDTV's Umashankar Singh and Kashmir Times' Iftikhar Gilani, busied ourselves in admiring the décor of the Governor's house. The jury is still out if that décor included the devastatingly beautiful secretary or not.
But when he entered the hall all of us were spellbound by his personality. Sorry, Sandeep Dikshit, he beat you hands down in the appearance department.
After firm handshakes and bear-hugs we started talking. He had very liberal views on most issues and was a great supporter of the normalisation of relations with India. We cracked some jokes and my my, what an infectious laugh he had. Umashankar Singh wanted a one-on-one interview with him. He was in a tearing hurry, but agreed. While we fumbled with cables, lights and mikes, he waited patiently. In the entire meeting the only whiff of irritation that flashed on his face was when NewsX's Vishal Thapar kept addressing him as “Salman Basheer”. “It's Taseer,” he had hissed.
When he was about to leave he replaced his Gucci reading glasses with the Police Sunglasses. Taseer was a man of taste. I still remember mentioning our meeting to Talat Hussain, Pakistan's most famous TV journalist and anchor. The first question he asked jokingly was, “Did Taseer dazzle you with his sunglasses?” Taseer was a flamboyant man and people loved and hated him for this in equal measure.
Salman Taseer was the son of Muhammad Din Taseer, popularly known as MD Taseer, who was the first Ph.D degree holder in the subcontinent. He got his Ph.D in English Literature from Cambridge University. His thesis was a critical and analytical study of five hundred years of English literature. But what most people don't know is that MD Taseer, as a education inspector in Kashmir, was instrumental in the formation of Sheikh Abdullah's Muslim Conference. He assisted Abdullah in resisting the Dogra rule in the valley. But MD Taseer was also a first rank Urdu poet, a distinguished essayist and a respected English literature critic of his time. But he died with humble belongings.
Salman was a self-made businessman. He began his business career by successfully setting up two chartered accountancy consultancy firms KPMG, United Arab Emirates and Taseer Hadi Khalid and Co, Pakistan. Under him, his group grew remarkably. Taseer also owned the Daily Times newspaper, Business Plus TV channel, Pace shopping malls and the Hyatt hotel range in Pakistan.
But he was never a politically correct politician. He had a long history of struggle against Zia’s dictatorship. After pulling out of politics for years, he returned as the PPP’s voice of reason. He was an avid supporter of the Ahmadi community, which has been persecuted for long in Pakistan and India. His political enmity with the Sharif brothers in Punjab put him in an uncomfortable position as a Governor. But he never let anything affect him.
The Sharifs, on their part, used unfair and untenable ways to discredit him. More often than not, the Sharifs targetted his flamboyant personality, and his and his kin's munificent and reasonably sybaritic—read ‘un-Islamic’— modus vivendi. Photographs of his family enjoying in the privacy of their home were placed under media scrutiny. But Taseer had the old world grace not to get affected by such below-the-belt antics.
While it gives heart that liberal and moderate elements in Pakistan have so strongly reacted to this despicable act of cowardice, it's painful to see the right-wing celebrating his death. I can only remember this line from Punjabi.
Dushman mare te khushi na kariye, sajna vi mar jaana
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
IIPM ranks No 1 in International Exposure in the 'Third Mail Today B-School Survey'
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri Dean Business School IIPM
IIPM Excom Prof Rajita Chaudhuri
Kapil Sibal’s voters want Jan Lokpal, not Government-proposed Lokpal Bill
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"Thorns to Competition" amongst the top 10 best sellers of the week.
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'Thorns to Competition' - You can order your copy online from here
