Salmaan Taseer (Urdu, Punjabi: سلمان تاثیر; June 12, 1946 – January 4, 2011) was a Pakistani businessman and politician who served as the governor of the province of Punjab from 2008 to 2011.
Salmaan Taseer was a member of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and had also served as a minister in the caretaker cabinet of Prime Minister Muhammad Mian Soomro under Pervez Musharraf. Taseer was also the chairman and CEO of the First Capital and Worldcall Group.
Salmaan Taseer was appointed to the post of governor on May 15, 2008, in place of outgoing governor, Lt Gen (R) Khalid Maqbool, by then-President Musharraf at the request of the PPP establishment.
Salmaan Taseer started his political career in his student era, as a member of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party (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).
In the 1988 general elections, Salmaan Taseer became a member of the Punjab Assembly from Lahore. In the 1990, 1993 and 1997 general elections, he ran as an MNA but lost.
In 2007, Salmaan Taseer was appointed the interim Federal Minister for Industries, Production and Special Initiatives.
On May 15, 2008, Taseer was designated for the office of Governor of Punjab by the PPP-led coalition government. Some veteran politicians have suggested to President Asif Ali Zardari that he appoint Ms. Amna Taseer, the widow of the late Salman Taseer, as Governor of Punjab. If she is appointed, she would become the second female governor in Pakistan and first female governor of Punjab. It is, however, yet to be accepted or acceded to by the ruling parties in Punjab province.
On January 4, 2011, one of Salmaan Taseer’s bodyguards shot him 27 times with an AK-47 at Kohsar Market, near his home in Sector F6, Islamabad 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 expatriates.
The assailant, Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri from Punjab, was part of the security detail provided to him by the Elite Police. After the shooting, Qadri turned himself in to authorities. Qadri reportedly said he killed Taseer due to the latter's vocal opposition of the blasphemy law in Pakistan. Notably, Taseer made headlines when he appealed for the pardon of a Christian Pakistani woman, Asia Bibi, who had been sentenced to death for blasphemy. It was suspected that this was the main reason for his assassination.
After his assassination, protests erupted in different parts of Punjab. Protestors also burned tyres and blocked traffic in Lahore.
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