Ab roshni hoti hai ke ghar jalta hai dekhain Shola satawaaf-e-dar-o-deewaar karay hai – Mir Taqi Mir [Will it lead to light or the house burning down, we’ll have to see A spark of sorts is circling the walls of our home] In Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novel ‘Chronicle of a Death Foretold, an anonymous narrator tells us about events leading up to the murder of Santiago Nasar, a man killed by two brothers who accused him of having relations with their sister. The narrator records how everyone in the village knew the murder would happen but did nothing to stop it. Marquez’s masterpiece explores the morality of the village’s collective responsibility in the murder of Santiago Nasar. Today, Pakistan seems eerily like a fictitious village in South America. We all watch as the march of death continues, unable or unwilling to stop it. “There had never been a death so foretold.” says the narrator of Marquez’s novel. Despite this, Mashal Khan’s murder has resulted in something unusual in Pakistan around the discourse on blasphemy. Universal condemnation. This is not insignificant and may allow a limited conversation to open up around the ‘misuse’ of the law. That is at least the hope that some of us cling to now. However, only incorrigible optimists can be forgiven for thinking it will last. New horrors will inevitably replace old ones and the amnesia train will rumble on. But this is not business as usual. Something unprecedented has occurred which will not make it easier to have the conversation around blasphemy, but impossibly harder. The mere whiff of blasphemy is political kryptonite in Pakistan but as we live and breathe it is transforming into something much more sinister. Always a law onto itself, its lure has now proved irresistible for those who want to harness its fearsome power for political ends. It is apparent that certain enclaves within officialdom have seen the versatile potential of its lethal intensity. Applied uses have been discovered, ground-breaking and far too important to simply be the preserve of garden-variety religious fanatics. From that point of view, it must have been nothing short of a light bulb moment. As a tool of crushing dissent, it is a veritable kiss of death. No trial, no defence, no appeal. In propaganda terms it is infinitely more powerful than any number of water cannons, tear gas shells and a thousand battalions of anti riot police. For years we lamented how the state was not able to curb the menace of blasphemy. Now it has weaponised it. These days the fatwas do not come from pulpits in rural dust towns but are delivered from the sleek sets of prime-time television talk shows, the high benches of the superior judiciary, from parliamentary standing committees, from the mouths of pugnacious ‘security analysts’ and from the Joint Investigation cells of Federal agencies. It is not hard to spot this masquerade, the carnival of sock puppets falling over themselves to curry favour is unmistakable. Amid this building chorus of bloodlust, the endless waves of innuendo, accusation and dog whistles coming from official and semi official quarters- an air of inevitability to Mashal’s tragedy had already been acquired. The stone once thrown could not be pulled back. It was only a matter of time till some other ‘authority’, perhaps the administration of a university, decided that it too needed its own smokescreen to quash dissent. Monkey see, monkey do. One man has led the charge more valiantly than others. Our esteemed Interior Minister has found it incumbent upon himself to hold press conference after press conference vowing to hunt down blasphemers and avenge the honour of Islam. He has spoken eloquently on the subject multiple times, extemporaneously and at length, informing us of the ‘personal interest’ he has taken in the matter. He has told us that he will not hesitate to “shut down all social media in the country if the scourge continues”. That his enthusiasm for this has far outweighed the PM’s has not gone unremarked either. It is quite astonishing that this flirtation with extremism does not appear to have been checked in the slightest by a wholly unprecedented and damning indictment of the Minister in the Quetta commission report only a few months ago. The amnesia express is a bullet train in Pakistan. As of today the FIA has at least a half a dozen unknown bloggers in custody on charges of blasphemy, the details of which are not known to anyone. The revolving door arrests of activists, academics and intellectuals continue with impunity, and when they are finally produced, a blasphemy allegation is waiting, dagger-like in the wings in case they talk. The arbitrary arrest of well-known academic and activist Dr Riaz Ahmed in Karachi, the most recent case in point. There are those who argue that mainstreaming hysteria around blasphemy will have disastrous consequences for the country in the long run. But far from toning down or employing tact in light of a delicate situation, Pakistan has upped the ante and is also now taking the battle global. A convention of Muslim envoys has been called at the invitation of the Interior Minister to ensure that the glory of Islam is not besmirched by anonymous Facebook posts. Chairing the convention the Minister said a formal reference would also be sent to the Secretary General of the Arab League and the Chairman of the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC). Very impressive indeed! Pakistan leading the way again. But the minister is not an unreasonable or unintelligent man. He appreciates what such allegations mean. Surely even he understands that in a country where young couples are thrown into brick ovens and naked mutilated bodies dragged through the streets- that inciting such passions from an office of public trust is akin to playing with fire. Interestingly, Chaudhry Nisar’s crusade against hate material on the Internet did not move him to act on a glaring recent example of hate speech directed against his own leader. The campaign has been so successful that even the PM has been accused of blasphemy on live television for attending a Holi event by a retired Air Force officer, who continues to be a regular on the airwaves. Does the honourable Minister not see where this is going? How the thing he is helping to nurture is already snarling back at its master. It is growing, changing shape, developing appetites. Surely we have learned the lessons about creating Frankensteins Minister? In the end, the falcon does not hear the falconer. I did not dare watch more than a few seconds of the video where Mashal was torn limb from limb- but there were some descriptions that were even more painful and I suspect will stay with me longer. Like when his father told reporters that his son was expected home for the weekend; “He said he would be back on Friday. Now here he is”. Or when his mother said that when she bent down to kiss her child’s precious hands one last time, she found his fingers mangled and broken. I don’t think I will ever forget that dormitory either, an altar of death strewn with emblems of this young man’s idealism and sense of wonder. The portrait of his idolChe Guevara must have looked on helplessly as he was dragged from this room. The same Che Guevara who said, “If you tremble with indignation at every injustice, you are a comrade of mine”. I wonder how many tremble with me now. I wonder how many felt the curtain pulled back and stared into the dark heart of Pakistan. Ziad Zafar is a Journalist and Documentary Filmmaker. He tweets @ziadzafar