Assassination throws U.S.-basked Pakistan into greater turmoil

[Turborama]

Source: McClatchy Via Miami Herlad

The brazen assassination of a popular Pakistani governor allied with the nation's president threw an already teetering U.S.- backed government into even greater turmoil.

BY SAEED SHAH AND JONATHAN S. LANDAY

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- The top official of Pakistan's most populous province, an outspoken critic of religious extremism, was assassinated Tuesday in Islamabad by one of his own police bodyguards, plunging the country vital to the U.S. fight against terrorism deeper into political turmoil.

Punjab Gov. Salman Taseer, who has been battling Islamists after he denounced a law against blasphemy, was killed on a road in the center of the Pakistani capital.

His slaying came as the ruling coalition led by the secular Pakistan Peoples Party, the PPP, was in danger of collapse after losing its parliamentary majority amid a growing economic crisis, including a sudden rise in fuel prices and extensive power shortages.

The turbulence couldn't come at a worse time for the Obama administration, diverting Pakistani political and military leaders from what Washington had hoped would be an intensified drive to shutter Afghan insurgent strongholds and al Qaeda-allied bases on Pakistan's side of the rugged border with Afghanistan.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/01/05/2000891/assassination-throws-us-basked.html

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Recent LBN OP related to this: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4681510">Pakistan PM tries to avert government collapse

[aquart]

1. Oh, gum drops. Happy New Year.

[Turborama]

2. I think they might have meant "backed", not "basked" but who knows?

Anyway, that's how the title was written when I posted. I tried to edit it just now but time ran out, probably just as well as I don't think we're allowed to second guess the editors, even if it could be a typo.

Happy new year to you, too.

[Tunkamerica]

4. Pakistan basking in the glory that is the US

[Turborama]

5. Could have been a Freudian slip along those lines

They must have noticed it by now. They did say "U.S.- backed government" in the introdution.

[clyrc]

3. I was talking to my Punjabi friend about this

he told me that he's gotten two calls today from people happy about the assassination. He told me his friends hated this guy because in such a poverty stricken nation, he had a private jet to take him around, paid for by the government. His friends thought the governor was corrupt and there was no way to get him out of office but assassination. My friend's view is that the governor was corrupt and the guard was an idiot. He told me nothing is as simple as it looks in Pakistan.

[upi402]

6. I saw that he stood up for a woman who was executed for blasphemy

I only heard that side...
That the woman touched the wrong water bowl, wasn't Muslim, said something wrong - and was executed for blasphemy. This governor stood by her side for a picture and tried to change the blasphemy laws.

For that, as I heard it, he was hated and that stoked this radical who assassinated him. But who knows.

I remember all the BS about E. Timor. And recently about Thailand's corporatist, Tahksin, and his rightist 'Red Shirts' who are like the Teabaggers here.

[Kolesar]

8. "I heard it on NPR" eom

[clyrc]

9. My friend doesn't believe that was the real reason

This guy was a friend of Zardari, and considered part of his corrupt government. From what my friend says, Zardari is a corrupt thief and he and his cronies don't care about Pakistan even a little bit. Pakistan is a mess. Now, it could be that my moderate Muslim friend is in denial, but he was taught from an early age not to trust what the media says about the government.

[upi402]

10. Karachi and Lahore

are said to be more progressive than rural areas, just like anywhere. In areas where there are educated and informed people, fundamentalism fails. It must be a very difficult place to be reasonable and informed, when there are executions for saying the wrong thing.

My good thoughts to your friend.

Politics is corrupt, remember Johnson? Yet he did a lot of good things that Republicans are still trying to undo. I trust your friend's take on it as I'm uninformed. Many corrupt rulers toss crumbs from the banquet table to the poor. But when I hear something on Democracy Now! or AJ - it sets a foundation for my understanding of something unfamiliar.

[clyrc]

12. My friend is a Lahori born, raised and educated in the United Arab Emirates

He goes back to Pakistan when he can, although it makes him sad. I thought he was just paranoid when I first met him, and I was amused that his people seem to think everything bad that happens anywhere is because of the CIA. Now I think maybe I was naive, although I'm still not convinced that the CIA is so all powerful.

[Kolesar]

7. It looks like liberal Bhutto and liberal Taseer were just murdered

Taseer was campaigning to end their medieval anti-blasphemy laws. He sounds like a nice man.

[ck4829]

11. And yet we continue to give money and support to this country

The 'think' tanks, the media, and the government all tell us to worry about Iran and they tell us to worry about North Korea. And yet here is a country, our ally, full of people that can attack and even kill liberals and outgroups with impunity... oh, and it already has a nuclear arsenal too.

Bizarre how international politics works, huh?

[Kolesar]

13. It started because we needed an "ally" on the Soviet border

To f--k with that pathetic rival.

[Hissyspit]

14. Governor of Pakistan's Punjab Province Assassinated

Source: Reuters

Governor of Pakistan's Punjab province assassinated
Tue Jan 4, 2011 7:34am EST

By Augustine Anthony

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A gunman assassinated the governor of Pakistan's central Punjab province, a senior member of the ruling party, in Islamabad on Tuesday, an aide said, as a new political crisis gripped the strategic U.S. ally.

Salman Taseer was killed by one of his guards probably because of his opposition to Pakistan's controversial blasphemy law, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said.

Rights groups say the law is often exploited by religious extremists as well as ordinary Pakistanis to settle personal scores.

Islamist groups have been angry over what they believe were government plans to change or scrap the law.

Read more: http://us.mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE7010QP20110104?ca=rdt

[IScreamSundays]

15. Punjab Governor Salman Taseer assassinated in Islamabad

Source: BBC

The BBC's Aleem Maqbool: "Police say it was one of his own security force that shot him"

The influential governor of Pakistan's Punjab province, Salman Taseer, has died after being shot by one of his bodyguards in the capital, Islamabad.

Mr Taseer, a senior member of the Pakistan People's Party, was shot when getting into his car at a market.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the guard had told police that he killed Mr Taseer because of the governor's opposition to Pakistan's blasphemy law.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12111831

[maxsolomon]

16. Not one step back from Righteousness.

I feel sorry for rational Pakistanis.