Tag: Aasia Bibi

Pakistan’s Punjab Governor Taseer Assassinated

News Being Ignored by the cable TeeVee AMSM Dept, not that we’re in a covert war or anything:

Tuesday, Jan 4, 2011. The governor of Pakistan’s Punjab province, Salman Taseer, age 56,  has been assassinated in the northern capital of Islamabad by one of his bodyguards.   Taseer was a member of the Bhutto legacy Pakistan People’s Party.  In 2008, the president of Pakistan, Zadari, appointed him governor of Punjab, which is Pakistan’s wealthiest province and in the east along the Indian border.   According to Al Jazeera, Taseer, who was visiting Islamabad, was not being guarded by his usual security detail. The alleged assassin was from Rawalpindi, which is slightly south of Islamabad, and that is where former PM Benazir Bhutto was also killed in 2007 by a bomb explosion.  Rawalpindi is the headquarters of the Pakistani Army and Air Force.

Tomorrow, January 5th, was to be the anniversary celebration of the birth of Bhutto’s father,   Zufikar Ali Bhutto.  

The government has closed parliament and announced a three day period of mourning.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worl…

Last month he publicly supported Aasia Bibi, a Christian woman and mother of three who has been sentenced to death for allegedly insulting the prophet Muhammad. Bibi’s case has triggered a fresh debate around the blasphemy laws, which human rights groups say are frequently abused to settle scores or target minorities.

Enraged PPP supporters took to the streets across Pakistan, chanting slogans and weeping. A procession of ashen-faced ministers and officials trailed into the Islamabad hospital where Taseer’s body was taken after the shooting. “These are the forces that are ranged against us,” said Latif Khosa, a former attorney general. “Every time our party comes to power, its leaders are assassinated or disappear.”

Foreshadowing ?


Monday, Jan 3rd, 2011.  

http://www.reuters.com/article…

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani’s government lost its parliamentary majority Sunday when the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) announced it would go into opposition over fuel price policies.

The former military chief (Musharraf), who came to power in a bloodless coup in 1999, has lived in self-imposed exile since he stepped down under threat of impeachment in 2008. He spends most of his time in London and Dubai.

Musharraf said: “I must return (to Pakistan) well before the next elections, whenever that may be. I strongly believe the real momentum for my party will start once I reach Pakistan. So we are trying to create an environment for me to reach there.”