WASHINGTON: Political leaders, activists and religious figures on Tuesday voiced hope for greater tolerance as they mourned slain Pakistan minister for minorities’ affairs Shahbaz Bhatti, at a tribute organized by a Washington-based group on the 10th anniversary of his killing.
Bhatti, a member of Pakistan’s small Christian community who sought reforms to blasphemy laws that critics say are frequently tools of persecution, was shot at least 25 times as he left his mother’s house on March 2, 2011.
Militant group Tehrik-e-Taliban claimed responsibility for the killing of Bhatti, who had faced particular backlash for defending Asia Bibi, a Christian villager sentenced to death on blasphemy allegations.
Bibi, who finally succeeded in 2019 in resettling in Canada, told a virtual commemorative event that she had given up hope after hearing about Bhatti’s death — two months after the assassination of another critic of blasphemy laws, Punjab’s governor Salman Taseer.
Bhatti “helped many poor people like me who were oppressed and helpless,” Bibi said in a video message for the event, organized by the Religious Freedom Institute.
“I want to appeal to the prime minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, that he should protect people like Shahbaz Bhatti because you need people like him to protect Christians and others.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau praised Bhatti for the “unwavering stance he took against injustice,” saying: “We will never forget his sacrifice and his enduring message of hope and religious freedom.”
Cardinal Joseph Coutts, who recently retired as the archbishop of Karachi, voiced concern that extremism has festered in Pakistani society in the decade since Bhatti’s killing.
“Ten years later, we remember you, we pray for you and we pray that what you wanted to change, we may be able to change and have a fair and just country to live in,” he said.
Calls to protect minorities 10 years after Pakistan minister slain
https://arab.news/65m27
Calls to protect minorities 10 years after Pakistan minister slain
- Minority affairs minister Shahbaz Bhatti was shot at least 25 times as he left his mother’s house on March 2, 2011
- Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau praised Bhatti for the “unwavering stance he took against injustice”
Pakistan’s defense minister backs army spokesman’s criticism of Imran Khan
- Khawaja Asif calls the military’s response to Khan’s recent remarks ‘measured’
- He accuses Khan’s PTI party of ‘changing its identity’ by siding against Pakistan
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif on Saturday defended a scathing news conference by the military’s spokesman a day earlier, in which the latter accused former prime minister Imran Khan of promoting an anti-state narrative that he said had become a national security threat.
Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, who heads the military’s media wing as director general of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), addressed journalists on Friday in response to Khan’s latest social media post accusing Chief of Defense Forces Field Marshal Asim Munir of being responsible for “the complete collapse of the constitution and rule of law in Pakistan.”
During the briefing, Chaudhry described the incarcerated former premier as a “narcissist” and a “mentally ill individual,” though he said it up to the government to determine how it wanted to deal with him.
Asked about the military’s viewpoint against Khan and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, Asif told reporters in the city of Sialkot the former premier had long used harsh language against state institutions and political opponents.
“When this kind of language is used for individuals as well as for institutions, then a reaction is a natural outcome,” he said. “The same thing is happening on the Twitter accounts being run in his [Khan’s] name. If the DG ISPR has given any reaction to it, then I believe it was a very measured reaction.”
The minister said Khan and PTI leaders had continued to target the army despite the sacrifices made by soldiers in the fight against militancy and during the four-day conflict with India in May.
He said PTI should recognize those sacrifices by supporting “our soldiers and martyrs” rather than “the terrorists.”
“Imran Khan speaks on every issue. Why did he not speak [in favor of the military] during the war [with India]?” Asif said. “Even during the war he kept targeting the military leadership. He continued to use inappropriate language for them.”
“People whose conduct is like this, whose language does not spare even the martyrs, how can they say ... that the DG ISPR should not say this or should not say that?” he continued. “He absolutely should.”
Asif added that Khan and his party had “changed their identity,” adding they were no longer standing with Pakistan.
PTI has not officially responded to his comments yet.
