LAHORE, March 3: The Pakistan People’s Party leadership is facing an increasing pressure from the party ranks to “revisit its strategy against religious extremists” after the murder of Federal Minister for Minorities Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti, Dawn has learnt.

The PPP leadership after the assassination of Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer had decided to ‘go soft’ on religious extremists as it was of the view that its political opponents would cash in on “PPP-religious forces clash”. It did not even bother to hold a reference at the party level in the memory of Taseer, the man who wanted to turn Lahore into another Larkana for the PPP.

Some senior PPP leaders, including some cabinet members, have shown serious concern over the party’s strategy towards the religious forces, especially after Taseer’s murder. They are of the view that “defensive and apologetic” stance of the party had helped strengthened the extremists.The sources said the PPP leadership was compelled to have a second thought on its strategy towards the religious forces. “President Asif Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani have discussed this aspect of Bhatti’s murder and they are going to take the central executive committee into confidence as how to deal with the growing impact of religious extremism in society,” a senior PPP leader told Dawn. He said some leaders even went on to say that “coward stance of the government has actually paved the way for the killing of Mr Bhatti.”

PPP Senator Safdar Abbasi says the crisis of leadership in the PPP is the reason behind growing militancy in the country. “Not only after the murder of Taseer, the PPP government sent a wrong message to the militants for not bringing the culprits of Benazir Bhutto’s murders to justice,” he said, adding that the government’s weak stance against militancy had also marginalised the liberal and progressive forces in the country.

Abbasi, who was cornered along with his wife Nahid Khan by Asif Ali Zardari, said the government had failed to restore political stability in the country. “The government could initiate steps it was supposed to take to curb growing militancy,” he said.

“Had the case of Mumtaz Qadri, the alleged murderer of Taseer, been dealt with properly, the extremists would have thought twice before going for the blood of another decent human being,” said Sobia Saleem, who worked in the media team of Taseer.

She further said: “We are standing at the edge of a precipice watching our country implode. Today we lost another good man in the fight for humanism. After Taseer’s assassination Bhatti knew well what he was up against it. But he chose to fight and be a beacon of light for the minorities of Pakistan. The question in everyone’s mind who is next? How far this will go and who will stand up now if the government does not wake up to this reality,” Ms Saleem said.