Over the last week or so, two high profile cases involving politicians in different parts of the world have jolted their respective political landscapes. Similar in nature — a sitting governor was killed by one of his security guards while a congresswoman was shot in the head and critically injured —both have elicited different responses from their countries' political leaderships.

In the first case, the tragic occurrence created further schisms within state and society; people are bitterly divided over the murder of Governor Salman Taseer. Some condone this gruesome act publicly and others reject it but quietly. But very few are willing to condemn it publicly.

Taseer's assassination in broad daylight at an upmarket area in Islamabad by one of his security guards has polarised society. It has also initiated a heated but directionless debate in the country between the liberals and the conservatives.

On the one hand, religious political parties are endorsing the killing, even threatening that more such incidents would follow if others spoke as did Taseer. Speaking at a huge public gathering in Karachi, Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman, for instance, held Taseer responsible for his own death by making controversial statements about a sensitive issue.

However, what is even more worrying is the deafening silence on the part of the country's so called liberal political forces. They seem so cowed down in the face of bigotry and obscurantism that very few of them are defending the late governor.

It needs to be remembered here that Taseer only criticised the misuse of the man-made or rather the dictator-made blasphemy law. He had said more than once that he wasn't against the law, but the manner in which it was misused or exploited.

Our leaders should understand this is the best time to start a debate in the parliament with the full involvement of religious scholars and settle this issue once and for all. Otherwise, similar incidents will keep on taking place. Others such as Qadri would be encouraged to kill, misled by the belief that they are doing good.

But, unfortunately, our political leadership does not seem to have this foresight. Why else would they keep announcing that they will not touch the blasphemy law? It is unfortunate that the parliamentary committee that can meet over one hundred times to fine tune the 18th amendment cannot get together even once to debate the issue. The least they can do is probe the procedural aspects of the case, as according to some legal minds, this is all that needs improvement; their argument being that the state only needs to ensure that the registration of a case takes place after stringent checks to ensure that it is not being misused by the complainant to settle personal scores.

Now consider the second case of the American shooting. Gabrielle Giffords, a 40-year-old Democrat congress woman from Tucson, Arizona, was shot on January 8, exactly four days after Taseer's tragic death. Though critically injured, her doctors are cautiously optimistic that she will pull through.

Since then, the entire United States is in the grip of shock; the majority of them appear to be discussing the event to figure out what made a 22-year-old college dropout shoot a congresswoman.

But the government and the political elite moved rapidly but surely to express its stand.

The American congress has deferred all its legislative business that involved partisan debate. Most of the elected representatives have given statements condemning the attack. The country's law enforcement agencies' officials are busy discussing foolproof security of political leaders.

Everyone, from President Barak Obama to congressmen and senators, has stood behind the injured legislator, regardless of political affiliation. But what Arizona Senator John McCain said about the event expressed the views of the American state and the politicians.

"Whoever did this, whatever their reason, they are a disgrace to Arizona, this country and the human race, and they deserve and will receive the contempt of all decent people and the strongest punishment of the law." Every one of us should talk about rule of law.

One can only dream of a Pakistan where politicians would have had the courage and the principles to have expressed similar views about the murder of Taseer.