Interior ministry report…: Anti-blasphemy law not abused in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: According to an interior ministry report, the anti-blasphemy law has not been abused in Pakistan. Anti-blasphemy laws are in force in 56 countries.

It is important to consider the law in the light of the Constitution of Pakistan which starts with Article 1 declaring that the country’s name will be Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Ninety-six per cent of the population is Muslim and Islam is the state religion.

Article 31 calls upon the state that steps shall be taken to enable the Muslims of Pakistan, individually and collectively, to order their lives in accordance with the fundamental principles and basic concepts of Islam and to provide facilities whereby they may be enabled to understand the meaning of life according to the Holy Quran and Sunnah.

According to Article 33, the State shall discourage parochial, racial, tribal, sectarian and provincial prejudices among the citizens. Pakistan’s former constitutions or the one in force allow a non-Muslim to be judge of the superior courts. That is why Justice A R Cornelius, a Christian, remained the Chief Justice of Pakistan in the 1960s. In 2007, Justice Rana Bhagwandas became the acting Chief Justice of Pakistan. In 2009, Jamshed Rahmatullah — a Christian — was made a high court judge.

In Pakistan, the anti-blasphemy Section 295 of the 138-year old India Act 1880 have been force since the 1947 partition of the Subcontinent. Similarly, India and Bangladesh continued with these legal provisions to prevent blasphemy. This law is not unique to these South Asian countries as 56 countries have laws prohibiting blasphemy.

In India, after the martyrdom of Ghazi Ilm Din, the British government added section 295-A to the Indian penal code declaring blasphemy of the founder of any religion as a punishable offence. Section 295 also prohibits sacrilege of sacred places and places of worship. Later Section 295-B was introduced to prevent sacrilege of the Holy Quran.

The provisions of the law under the Indian penal code or Pakistan Penal Code could not be applied as people would themselves execute a blasphemer. In order to prevent such incidents, Section 295-C was added to the law in respect of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) during the Gen Ziaul Haq’s rule. This section of the law declared that that a blasphemy case under Section 295-C would be heard by a sessions court presided over by a Muslim judge. This section declared that the offense of blasphemy of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) would entail death penalty or imprisonment for life.

The Constitution of Pakistan has established the Federal Shariat Court (FSC) to ensure the implementation of laws based on Quran and Sunnah. The FSC is also constitutionally empowered to nullify any law that is repugnant to Quran and Sunnah.

In October 1990, the FSC annulled life-term penalty in a blasphemy case, declaring that a blasphemy convict would only be given death sentence. The FSC declared that President of Pakistan should remove the option between death penalty or life term and remove the latter option (or life term) by April 30, 1991, failing which these words would stand removed from the law and only death penalty would stay there. The President did not meet the deadline after which the life term stood annulled according to the FSC verdict. However, necessary legislation was required.

On April 10, 1992, the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif addressed the Parliament and declared that Quran and Sunnah is the supreme law. On June 2, 1992, the National Assembly passed a unanimous resolution endorsing death penalty for a blasphemer as ordered by the FSC.

A study of the application of the anti-blasphemy law shows that a blasphemy accused, defence counsel, police and judges always faced pressure and threats. That is why blasphemy accused are not freed on bail and are kept in solitary confinement to save them the wrath of other prisoners. Those who were acquitted of the charge either stayed underground or went abroad.

It may be noted that though no one has ever been sentenced for blasphemy, the family of the accused has to undergo severe stress and the accused has to live a life doomed in fear.

Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, the UAE, Indonesia, Yemen, Algeria, Nigeria and Iran have also death penalty for a blasphemer. Saudi Arabia and Sudan, besides death penalty, also whip the blasphemer.

Several non-Muslim and European countries have also anti-blasphemy laws. The UK introduced a law in 1988 to protect sacrilege against Christianity, while Ireland legislated to this effect in July 2009. Finland, the Netherlands, Malta, Germany, Denmark, Croatia, Cyprus, Turkey, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Lithuania, Russia, the US, Portugal, Norway, Ukraine, and Switzerland also criminalise sacrilege, though most European countries use these laws to protect Christianity alone.

On November 25, 2015, federal minister for minority affairs Shahbaz Bhatti, who was later murdered, had presented a report on Aasia Bibi case to President Asif Zardari. She was arrested on blasphemy charges.

The report said not a single incident of blasphemy was reported before the government of General Zia when there was no Blasphemy Law. Hundreds of non-Muslims were implicated in the blasphemy cases during the regime of Ziaul Haq.

The Shahbaz Bhatti’s report was not based on the facts as incidents of blasphemy had occurred before the enforcement of Blasphemy Law. A new Blasphemy Law was enacted to ensure the rule of law as the people had been punishing the “blasphemers” themselves.

A survey shows blasphemy cases were registered against 890 people in 22 years (1988 to 2010), but no one was convicted. Fifty percent of the arrested persons were Christians and Qadianis while the rest were Muslims. Twenty of them were killed on the spot by the people, while four were shot dead on the premises of courts during their trial.

Six accused were murdered by the prisoners in the jails. Charges of blasphemy could not be proved against 22 percent of accused. Two were freed as prosecution failed to make their case. They later left the country or went into hiding. Only 15 percent accused escaped the death sentence after facing the trial court.

In July 2010, a trader in Faisalabad leveled charges against one of his workers that he dishonoured the name of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). Some armed persons shot dead the accused and his brother when the police were taking both men to the court.

On August 4, 2009, a group of people put a factory on fire in Sheikhupura. Najibullah, the owner of the factory, had been accused of blasphemy. According to a report of interior ministry, the owner of the factory and the workers had an issue between them over the payment of dues that led to the allegations of disrespect shown by Najibullah to the Holy Quran.

On January 28, 2008, the police arrested four members of Qadiani community and a labourer on the charges of blasphemy. The allegations proved false in the investigations conducted by the SSP.

In May 2008, the Punjab police arrested Dr Robin Sardar. According to the report of interior ministry, the complainant against him was a vendor and wanted to fix his stall up outside the clinic of the doctor. He was implicated in the blasphemy case after an altercation.

The interior ministry report shows most of the blasphemy accused were arrested following their personal disputes with the complainants. Some of these disputes were on the property and other on business matters.

The blasphemy incidents also happened during the political governments in the past.

In 2008 during the government of Shaukat Aziz, the district sessions judges ordered registration of blasphemy case to check the wrong use of the law and to respond to the criticism of the law by the western and the European countries.

An American report on the religious freedom claims 17 people were sentenced to death and 50 arrested in Pakistan in 2017 under the Blasphemy Law.