Salmaan Taseer

Salmaan Taseer was a Pakistani businessman and politician who served as the 34th Governor of Punjab. He held this position from May 2008 until his assassination in January 2011.

Early life and education

Taseer was born on 31 May 1944 in Shimla, British India. His father, Muhammad Din Taseer, was a professor at Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental College in Amritsar who held a PhD from the United Kingdom. His mother, Christobel George, was a British woman who converted to Islam and adopted the name Bilqis. Because his father died in 1950 when Taseer was only six years old, his mother raised him and his two sisters in relative poverty.

He attended St. Anthony's School, where he was a classmate of Nawaz Sharif. After completing his early schooling, he moved to London to study accountancy at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. He eventually obtained a degree in Chartered Accountancy.

Career

Taseer began his political involvement during his student years as a member of the Pakistan Peoples Party in the late 1960s. He supported the movement for Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's freedom and later wrote a biography titled Bhutto: A political biography in 1980. He remained a trusted aide to Benazir Bhutto throughout her career. In the 1988 general elections, he was elected to the Punjab Assembly from Lahore, though he lost subsequent attempts for MNA seats in 1990, 1993 and 1997.

His political roles expanded when he served as an interim Federal Minister for Industries, Production and Special Initiatives in 2007. On 15 May 2008, President Pervez Musharraf appointed him Governor of Punjab at the request of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani. During his tenure, he became a vocal critic of Pakistan's blasphemy laws. He specifically called for a pardon for Asia Bibi, a woman sentenced to death under those laws.

In the business sector, Taseer established several consultancy firms and founded the First Capital Securities Corporation in 1995. This brokerage house included equity participation from Smith Barney, Inc. and HG Asia Hong Kong. He also founded the Worldcall Group in 1996, which grew into a major private-sector telecom operator. In 2001, he expanded into media by founding Media Times. This venture included the English news channel Business Plus, the children's channel Wikkid Plus, and the newspaper Daily Times.

Taseer was assassinated on 4 January 2011 at Kohsar Market in Islamabad. His bodyguard, Malik Mumtaz Qadri, shot him 27 times with an AK-47 assault rifle. Qadri reportedly disagreed with Taseer's moderate views regarding religious laws. The Guardian described the murder as one of the most traumatic events in recent Pakistani history.

Personal life

Taseer was married twice during his life. His first marriage was to Yasmeen Sehgal, with whom he had one son named Shaan and two daughters, Sara and Sanam. He later married Aamna Taseer, a chairperson of an investment management company. This second marriage produced two sons, Shahbaz and Shehryar, and a daughter, Shehrbano.

He also had two reported extramarital relationships with Indian nationals. In 1980, he met journalist Tavleen Singh during a book promotion trip to India. They had a son named Aatish, who is now a freelance journalist in the UK. Taseer also had a year-long affair with actress Simi Garewal that began in Dubai.

Following his death, Taseer's son Shahbaz was kidnapped by the Pakistani Taliban in 2011. He was eventually released in 2016, which occurred a few months after the execution of Mumtaz Qadri. His other son, Shaan, remains a critic of the country's blasphemy laws.