Pakistan, Jan. 4 -- Salman Taseer (1944-2011) remains one of the most consequential and polarizing figures in Pakistan's political history. His life embodied the unresolved struggle between Pakistan's liberal aspirations and its expanding religious conservatism. A businessman turned politician, a Bhutto loyalist, and an unapologetic secularist, Taseer stood almost alone at a moment when political courage had become lethal. His assassination by his own bodyguard in January 2011 marked a decisive rupture in Pakistan's relationship with religious extremism and exposed the fragility of liberal politics within the state.
This biography situates Taseer within Pakistan's broader socio-political evolution, tracing his intellectual inheritance, cap...