Salman Taseer (; 4 January 2011) was a Pakistani businessman and politician, who served as the 34th

Governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

from 2008 until his assassination in 2011. A member of the

Pakistan Peoples Party The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) is a political party in Pakistan and one of the three major List of political parties in Pakistan, Pakistani political parties alongside the Pakistan Muslim League (N) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. With a Cent ...

since the 1980s, he was elected to the Punjab Assembly from Lahore in the 1988 election, however lost in 1990, 1993 and then in 1997. Taseer served as a minister in the caretaker cabinet of Prime Minister Muhammad Mian Soomro under

Pervez Musharraf Pervez Musharraf (11 August 1943 – 5 February 2023) was a Pakistani general and politician who served as the tenth president of Pakistan from 2001 to 2008. Prior to his career in politics, he was a four-star general and appointed as ...

during the 2008 elections. He was appointed as the governor of Punjab on 15 May 2008, by then-President Musharraf at the request of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani. During his governorship, he emerged as an outspoken critic of Pakistan's

blasphemy laws A blasphemy law is a law prohibiting blasphemy, which is the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of Reverence (attitude), reverence to a deity, or sacred objects, or toward something considered sacred or inviolable. According to Pew Re ...

and consequently called for the pardon for a blasphemy accused Asia Bibi. Born in

Shimla Shimla, also known as Simla ( the official name until 1972), is the capital and the largest city of the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. In 1864, Shimla was declared the summer capital of British India. After independence, the city ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

, Taseer studied at the St. Anthony's School and the Government College in

Lahore Lahore ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, second-largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi, and ...

before moving to London where he studied

accountancy Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the process of recording and processing information about economic entities, such as businesses and corporations. Accounting measures the results of an organization's economic activities and conveys ...

at the

Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) is a professional membership organisation that promotes, develops and supports chartered accountants and students around the world. As of December 2024, it has over 210,000 memb ...

. In 1994, Taseer established a brokerage house backed by the

Smith Barney Morgan Stanley Wealth Management is an American Multinational corporation, multinational financial services corporation specializing in Broker, retail brokerage. It is the wealth & asset management division of Morgan Stanley. On January 13, 2009, ...

and in 1996 he founded the Worldcall Group. In 2000s, he ventured into media, launching ''Business Plus'' and ''Daily Times''. On 4 January 2011, Taseer was assassinated at the Kohsar Market in

Islamabad Islamabad (; , ; ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's tenth-most populous city with a population of over 1.1 million and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital Territory. Bu ...

by his bodyguard Mumtaz Qadri. Qadri disagreed with Taseer's opposition to Pakistan's blasphemy law, perceiving Taseer's moderate views as an insult to Islam. ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' described Taseer's murder as "one of the most traumatic events in recent Pakistani history." A nationwide three-day state of mourning was held in Pakistan, Taseer's funeral prayers were held at the Governors House in Lahore. Taseer's son, Shahbaz, was kidnapped by the

Pakistani Taliban The Pakistani Taliban, officially the Tehreek-i-Taliban-e-Pakistan (TTP), is an umbrella organization of various Islamist armed militant groups operating along the Afghan–Pakistani border. Formed in 2007 by Baitullah Mehsud, its current ...

in 2011, before being released in 2016, a few months after Taseer's murderer was hanged. Taseer's other son, Shaan, is a leading critic of the country's

blasphemy law A blasphemy law is a law prohibiting blasphemy, which is the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of Reverence (attitude), reverence to a deity, or sacred objects, or toward something considered sacred or inviolable. According to Pew Re ...

Early life and education

Taseer was born on 31 May 1944, in

, to a mixed-race family, being of Kashmiri descent on his father's side "Kashmiris in Pakistan are not only in Azad Kashmir, they are spread all over. I am a Kashmiri. There are thousands and thousands of Kashmiris in Gujranwala, Sialkot, Lahore, and there's huge amounts of sympathy for the Kashmiri cause across Pakistan." and of English descent on his mother's side. His father was Muhammad Din Taseer (M. D. Taseer), who hailed from Ajnala near Amritsar, and was a professor at Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental College, Amritsar, having obtained his PhD in the United Kingdom. Taseer's mother was Christobel George, a British woman who, upon her wedding, converted to Islam and took the name Bilqis. Taseer's father died in 1950 at the age of 47, when Taseer was only six years old. Taseer and his two sisters were brought up by their mother in relative poverty, in an environment with strong Christian influences. He had little immersion in Pakistani culture, because his mother didn't stay in contact with her late husband's family. Taseer attended St. Anthony's School where he was a classmate of

Nawaz Sharif Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif (born 25 December 1949) is a Pakistani politician and businessman who served as the 12th Prime Minister of Pakistan, prime minister of Pakistan for three non-consecutive terms, first serving from 1990 to 1993, then ...

. He then obtained a degree in Chartered Accountancy from London.

Personal life

Taseer was married twice, and also had two confirmed extra-marital relationships. With his first wife Yasmeen Sehgal, he had one son, Shaan, and two daughters, Sara and Sanam. His second wife, Aamna Taseer, is chairperson of an

investment management Investment management (sometimes referred to more generally as financial asset management) is the professional asset management of various Security (finance), securities, including shareholdings, Bond (finance), bonds, and other assets, such as r ...

company. They have two sons, Shahbaz and Shehryar and a daughter, Shehrbano. Taseer had a brief extramarital relationship with the Indian journalist Tavleen Singh. Taseer met Singh during a book promotion trip to

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

in March 1980. Their son, Aatish (born 27 November 1980), is a writer and journalist. According to Aatish, the relationship between his parents was an "affair (which) lasted little more than a week." Aatish is a freelance journalist in the UK and has written a book – ''Stranger to History: A Son’s Journey through Islamic Lands'' – about his estranged relationship with his biological father. The other relationship that did not end in marriage was also with an Indian, actress Simi Garewal. His year-long affair with Garewal began in Dubai and ended when he married Aamna Taseer.

Political career

Taseer started his political career in his student era as a member of

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (5 January 1928 – 4 April 1979) was a Pakistani barrister and politician who served as the fourth president of Pakistan from 1971 to 1973 and later as the ninth Prime Minister of Pakistan, prime minister of Pakistan from 19 ...

(PPP) in the late 1960s. He was a part of the movement for Bhutto's freedom and opposed his arrest and death sentence. He also wrote a political biography on Bhutto titled ''Bhutto: A political biography'' (1980). Taseer was also known to be one of the trusted aides of Bhutto's daughter and political heir,

Benazir Bhutto Benazir Bhutto (21 June 1953 – 27 December 2007) was a Pakistani politician who served as the 11th prime minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990, and again from 1993 to 1996. She was also the first woman elected to head a democratic governmen ...

. In the 1988 general elections, Taseer became a member of the Punjab Assembly from

. In the 1990, 1993 and 1997 general elections, he stood for election to be an MNA but lost. In 2007, he was appointed the interim Federal Minister for Industries, Production and Special Initiatives. On 15 May 2008, Taseer was designated for the office of Governor of Punjab by the PPP-led coalition government. In December 2010, Taseer was alleged to have left the country for several days without handing over charge to the Punjab Assembly Speaker. This meant that the province was without a constitutional head, and it also rendered the assembly speaker ineligible to preside over sessions. Leaving the province without informing his successor was in violation of the constitution and this led to Punjab Assembly Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal sending a letter to Prime Minister Gilani calling for the removal of Salmaan Taseer by the President. Evidence provided by ICAO on the governor's travel abroad led to a case being filed in court for breach of the constitution.

Business career

Taseer set up several chartered accountancy and management consultancy firms early in his career. In 1995 he established the First Capital Securities Corporation (FCSC), a full-service brokerage house with equity participation by

, Inc., USA, and HG Asia Hong Kong. In 1996, Taseer founded the Worldcall group with a payphone network. Over the years, it become a major private-sector telecom operator in Pakistan. A majority stake in Worldcall was acquired in 2008 by Omantel. In 2001, Taseer founded Media Times which operated an English news channel in Pakistan, Business Plus; a children's channel, Wikkid Plus; a cooking channel, Zaiqa; and published an English-language newspaper '' Daily Times'' and an Urdu-language newspaper ''Aaj Kal''.

Assassination

In an interview with Meher Bukhari on Samaa TV, Taseer commented on his view about the country's

and on filing a mercy petition for Asia Bibi, who was sentenced to death by a court under the law. On 4 January 2011, one of Taseer's bodyguards, Malik Mumtaz Qadri, shot him 27 times with an

AK-47 assault rifle The AK-47, officially known as the Avtomat Kalashnikova (; also known as the Kalashnikov or just AK), is an assault rifle that is chambered for the 7.62×39mm cartridge. Developed in the Soviet Union by Russian small-arms designer Mikhail Kal ...

at Kohsar Market, near his home in Sector F6,

, as he was returning to his car after meeting a friend for lunch. Kohsar Market is a popular shopping and cafe spot for the city's elite and

expatriate An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person who resides outside their native country. The term often refers to a professional, skilled worker, or student from an affluent country. However, it may also refer to retirees, artists and ...

s. Qadri perceived Taseer's defense of the rights of women and religious minorities as insulting to Islam. Eight hours before his assassination, he tweeted an Urdu couplet by

Shakeel Badayuni Shakeel Badayuni (3 August 1916 – 20 April 1970) was an Indian Urdu poet, lyricist and songwriter in Hindi / Urdu language films. Early life Shakeel Badayuni was born in Badaun, Uttar Pradesh. His father, Mohammed Jamaal Ahmed Sokhta Qadi ...

: "My resolve is so strong that I do not fear the flames from without, I fear only the radiance of the flowers, that it might burn my garden down." The next day, just hundreds of people turned up for his funeral in Lahore in spite of denunciations by some Sunni clerics and religious scholars against mourning Taseer.Sana Saleem
"Salmaan Taseer: murder in an extremist climate"
, ''

'', 5 January 2011. Retrieved 7 January 2011.Aleem Maqbool and Orla Guerin
"Salman Taseer: Thousands mourn Pakistan governor"
: "One small religious party, the Jamaat-e-Ahl-e-Sunnat Pakistan, warned that anyone who expressed grief over the assassination could suffer the same fate. 'No Muslim should attend the funeral or even try to pray for Salman Taseer or even express any kind of regret or sympathy over the incident,' the party said in a statement. It said anyone who expressed sympathy over the death of a blasphemer was also committing blasphemy." ''BBC News South Asia'', 5 January 2011. Retrieved 7 January 2011. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and many supporters of the ruling PPP were seen attending the funeral prayer. The funeral prayers were finally led by Allama Afzal Chisti of the

Ulema In Islam, the ''ulama'' ( ; also spelled ''ulema''; ; singular ; feminine singular , plural ) are scholars of Islamic doctrine and law. They are considered the guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of religious knowledge in Islam. "Ulama ...

wing of the PPP after the chief cleric of the

Badshahi Mosque The Badshahi Mosque (; ) is a Mughal Empire, Mughal-era congregational mosque, imperial mosque located in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. It was constructed between 1671 and 1673 during the rule of Aurangzeb, opposite of the Lahore Fort on the north ...

, who had initially agreed to offer prayers, backed off at the last moment, saying he was going out of town. Taseer was buried at a military cantonment in Lahore. The assassin Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri was from Punjab, and was part of the security detail provided to Taseer by the Elite Police. After the shooting, Qadri threw his weapon down. He reportedly pleaded to be arrested. After the murder, more than 500 clerics voiced support for the murder and urged a general boycott of Taseer's funeral as he supported a blasphemer. Supporters of Mumtaz Qadri blocked police attempting to bring him to the Anti-Terrorism Court in

Rawalpindi Rawalpindi is the List of cities in Punjab, Pakistan by population, third-largest city in the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is a commercial and industrial hub, being the list of cities in P ...

, and some supporters showered him with rose petals. On 1 October 2011, Qadri was sentenced to death by a Pakistani Anti Terrorist court at

for murdering Taseer. Qadri was executed on 29 February 2016.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Taseer, Salmaan 1944 births 2011 deaths Punjab MPAs 1988–1990 Pakistani accountants Pakistani industrialists Pakistani liberal politicians Pakistani company founders Pakistan People's Party MPAs (Punjab) Federal ministers of Pakistan Governors of Punjab, Pakistan Pakistani people of Anglo-Indian descent Pakistani people of English descent Pakistani terrorism victims Pakistani expatriates in the United Arab Emirates Pakistani people of Kashmiri descent People persecuted by Muslims Politicians from Lahore People from Shimla Salmaan People murdered in Islamabad Assassinated Pakistani politicians Businesspeople from Lahore Deaths by firearm in Pakistan St. Anthony's High School, Lahore alumni Pakistani newspaper founders Assassinated governors and heads of sub-national entities 21st-century governors Asian politicians assassinated in the 2010s Politicians assassinated in 2011 People from Punjab Province (British India)