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On October 31, the Supreme Court of Pakistan acquitted Asia Bibi, a 53-year-old Christian woman who had been on death row since 2010 for allegedly committing blasphemy against Islam. Thousands of protestors quickly took to the streets, shutting down Pakistan’s cities and calling for a general strike, the killing of justices, and an uprising against the army chief. At first, Prime Minister Imran Khan was defiant. He delivered a televised address in defense of the court and threatened to intervene against the protesters. Yet on Friday, Khan switched tack and submitted to their demands. In doing so, he has weakened Pakistan’s state and empowered its fundamentalists.
According to the agreement between the government and the protestors, Asia Bibi will be put on an exit control list preventing her from leaving Pakistan, and the government will allow an appeal against the court’s decision. This came just 30 hours after Khan’s party, the PTI, tweeted that the “Federal Government has no plan to put Asia Bibi’s name on ECL [exit control list] or appeal for a review against the court’s verdict.” It also follows the lauded address in which Khan denounced the protestors as “enemies of the state” and defended the court’s decision.
This backtracking is another unsurprising chapter in the saga of “Taliban Khan,” a nickname earned by Khan’s long history of pandering to extremists. During his campaign, Khan defended blasphemy laws while members of his party campaigned with known terrorists. In August, he pushed for international blasphemy restrictions in response to a prophet Mohammad drawing contest in the Netherlands. The contest was canceled after credible threats of violence.
The chief beneficiary of Khan’s capitulation is the TLP, an Islamist political party dedicated to protecting Pakistan’s strict blasphemy laws and organizer of the protests against Bibi’s acquittal. The TLP earned just 4 percent of the total votes in the last election and holds no seats in the national assembly. Yet, through a committed base of fundamentalists, it routinely strong-arms the government on political matters, including forcing the resignations of a law minister and a prominent economic adviser on religious grounds.
In this latest case, the TLP called for a rebellion against the state. It brought the country to a standstill and caused the closing of schools, highways, and the cellular network. The state’s quiescence proves that it has no appetite for conflict with the fundamentalists, handing them veto power over both the government and the courts. The TLP’s incitement against the army chief bodes poorly for the military as well.
Had Khan stood by his speech, he could have asserted the state’s writ over the fundamentalists and enabled the strengthening of rule of law that Pakistan so desperately needs. Instead, his party’s display of impotence has ceded whatever authority it may have had. Now, if Khan is to follow through on his promise of a “new Pakistan,” it will only be because the fundamentalists allow him to.
Max Frost is a Research Assistant in South Asian Studies at the American Enterprise Institute.
Imran Khan’s spectacular capitulation to fundamentalist protesters further damages the Pakistani state’s waning authority.
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