History of Pakistan

Blasphemy laws in many countries are supposed to protect religion. But while the one religion may be protected, believers of other religions often have to suffer.

Sherry Rehman: Blasphemy law needs rectification

The News' Sehar Baloch interviews Sherry Rehman, PPP MNA and President of the Jinnah Institute:

As fresh cases emerge, the country’s blasphemy law, which has once again drawn attention from the national and international media, has been presented in the National Assembly by Sherry Rehman to be reviewed and amended. In an exclusive interview, she speaks about the confusion and controversy created by the law.

The increasing cries of injustice meted out to innocent people along with the silent suffering of many people due to the abuse of the blasphemy law compelled Rehman, a former federal information minister, to demand four major amendments to clauses “which are known for their serious defects in both form and procedure.”

One, that the death penalty inserted in this law by General Ziaul Haq be removed. She says that has given a clear incentive to many to misuse this law to settle personal scores and grab property. Elaborating, she says that statistics show an exponential rise in blasphemy accusations since the penalty was introduced. Two, she seeks to restore the concept of proving malicious intent, which is central to criminal law even in Pakistan, on behalf of the accused.

“Ziaul Haq had removed this clause in the blasphemy law, leaving them open to widespread abuse, placing the burden of proving innocence on the accused in the face of prosecution witnesses who tailored their evidence on prejudice or malice.

Three, we propose to make all blasphemy cases trialable in the high courts, although sessions courts may take cognizance. This is being done to prevent miscarriages of justice, because the higher courts, as we all know, afford judges better protection against extremists, as well as place the trial under higher public scrutiny,” she explains.

Fourthly, and most importantly, Rehman has added two clauses to the PPC that make false accusations punishable under the law. This she says “would take away the impunity afforded to malicious accusers and inciters to hate, whose victims may find acquittal but also find that their lives, reputations, security and mobility destroyed by such charges."

Before proposing the amendments, the MNA earlier spoke about repealing blasphemy laws altogether but changed her decision. Repeal is still an ideal situation, she says, for both Hudood and blasphemy laws. “But my experience with the Hudood repeal in the last government has taught me that amendments and relief can be obtained if made politically palatable.”

Speaking about the blasphemy debate, she says that it has, unfortunately, been framed by the religious right in terms that are actually quite unrelated to justice, Islam, rights, democracy and even protection of the Prophet’s (PBUH) name.

“This political culture seeks to often deliberately block reform on the basis of entirely man-made dogma. Introducing a bill against such an abuse of these laws, and injustice to the Prophet’s (PBUH) name, which was only associated with a millenarian search for justice and protection of the vulnerable, is also a first step towards appropriating religious discourse in the hands of responsible citizens that have voted for a Pakistan free of persecution on the basis of religion, race, gender, class and creed.”

Religious factions have shown their extreme displeasure at the proposal of amending the blasphemy law. Keeping in view the circumstances, does she feel the amendments would be easily made, as every religious leader would want his two cents to be included in the final draft as well?

Unfazed she replies that all laws go to committees. “That leaves the majority parties room to organise themselves and impose their agenda. If there is political will, it can be done. Yes, the religious right will try to influence it, but that too is their democratic right as per their numbers in parliament.”

In order to get justice, one has to go through a lot of trials and tribulations which are a part of getting justice anywhere in the world. But in Pakistan it comes with a potential threat of being abused by an angry mob or killed in the name of honour. Rehman feels that now is the time to speak up for our rights and stop being part of the “silent majority” that lets politically exposed rightists marginalise us due to threats, both physical and existential, she adds.

The long-term implications of such laws are bad and that is anyone’s guess too. Rehman says that, if left unamended, the implications of the blasphemy law will be huge in terms of distorting the judicial system in Pakistan like no other law has.

Apart from criminalisiing people for “vague and unproven abuses” of Islam, these laws strip minorities and non-orthodox Muslims of fundamental rights that both the Constitution and religion enshrine as guaranteed rights. “Their existence on the statute books is a shameful index of our helplessness as a society that has allowed our national identity to be re-defined in terms of a caste system among citizens, not by social context or vulnerability, but by law.”

She says the victims of such laws are always second or third class citizens, and this is at once frustrating and demoralising for an individual of a civilised society. Though she fears that the laws have slowly changed the culture of our public life and police system, they have also wiped out tolerance. Looking at the broader level, she says that Pakistan was never meant to have a totally uncontested identity, “but these laws render our national identity both fragmented and monochrome, wiping out the tolerance for plurality made explicit in the white stripe in our green flag.”

The confusion regarding the blasphemy law is largely because of the low literacy level among the masses, as well as little understanding of such laws among the elite class at the same time. Rehman says that the confusion is “deliberately compounded by religious rightists who use this law, and their old dominance of religious discourse to seal the debate as an Islamist one that only they can access or interpret.”

She further adds that this is a political card they play to manipulate public opinion in a fairly devout and “largely pacifist country.” The average citizen becomes a victim of this exclusionary narrative, and when no counter-narrative is offered by our educated elites, the issue becomes controversial and difficult to mainstream. Criticising the role of some “so-called progressive media groups” who she says have refused programming on the issue, as well as blocked humanist debate in their “vernacular print media organs.”

“This has created an apartheid of intellectual and political fundamentalisms, with tolerant discourse ghettoized as an elite or non-mass issue,” she says. Source: The News

A couple of days before, a Multan-based lawyer filed a case in a court alleging that a detergent powder TV advertisement insults Caliph Omar. In this advertisement, there are two characters: one little boy names Omar and his grandmother. The grandmother searches for Omar who is shown to be a clever boy. The boy is clever because he put some ink on his face and stands in one corner of his home posing as a scarecrow. This lawyer said that the name Omar is taken 5 times by the woman and in the end the young Omar is shown to have blackened his face. According to the lawyer, this is an instance of treasonous blasphemy because the blackened face insults Caliph Omar.

This is not all. The lawyer (I am not giving his name because he wants his name all over the media), notorious for his open support for Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Rana Sanaullah and Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, has claimed that the person who designed the advertisement is “known for his links with Israel and the Jews” (I am giving the name of this gentleman in order to protect him).

This lawyer is one instance of the hypocrisy we are into as a nation. Let us say there is a criminal who molests children and then kills them. Let us assume that the name of this person is Muhammad Bakhsh. Will calling this person a criminal constitute blasphemy? If you look at some of the worst criminals in Pakistan, they made sure that “Muhammad” was tagged with the name they used to be addressed usually. Before he dismissed ZA Bhutto’s elected government, he was known as General Zia ul Haq. But once in the political command of Pakistan, he ordered that his complete name be mentioned: “General Muhammad Zia ul Haq”. Nawaz Sharif was “Mian Nawaz Sharif”, but the day he decided to turn into a Stalin of Pakistan through constitutional amendments, he became “Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif”. So did “Muhammad” Shahbaz Sharif.

What about “Ameerul Mominin” Mullah Omar of Afghanistan, one of the maddest psychopath-criminal of modern times. Isn’t he an embodiment of blasphemy against humanity? A one-eyed monster who reminded the civilized world of some of Omer’s nastiest mythical characters, Mullah Omar as “Ameerul Mominin” was nothing but a murderer, rapist (he forced women to marry him), dictator, and a drug pusher. He was/is surreal enough to be taken for a mythological monster come alive! Doesn’t the very name King “Abdullah” evoke “good” Muslims’ anger? Why does this Abu Jahil of modern times have the name of the father of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)? What about “Muhammad” Iftikhar Chaudhry who has disgraced the great Prophet’s name by making a mockery of the justice system of Pakistan? Will the good lawyer launch a long march against Cheap Justice?

22 of a total of 38 women booked under the blasphemy laws are Muslims, data obtained from different organisations by The Express Tribune reveals.
The data also shows that 14 out of the 38 women booked under the blasphemy laws were Christian. A Hindu and an Ahamdi were also among those accused of blasphemy.
Dr Mehdi Hasan, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) chairperson, said that around 80 per cent of those accused of blasphemy were falsely implicated. “Many people get a blasphemy case registered against their opponents because of property issues or other personal or family vendetta,” said Hasan.
Syed Mumtaz Alam Gilani, the federal minister for human rights, said that more and more Muslims were using the laws to settle scores with fellow Muslims. “Currently, there are around 42 cases in which Muslims have registered FIRs against Muslims,” the minister said. Gilani also said that a parliamentary committee was trying to come up with proposals to ensure that the laws are not misused.
Records of the National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP), Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) and Ministry of Human Rights, also show that 37 of these women were booked between 1990 and 2010 while only one case was registered in 1987.
33 women of the 38 are from the Punjab.
Cases against six were registered in Lahore, five in Sheikhupura, four in Kasur, two in Rawalpindi and two in Gujranwala.
According to the record available, a Mrs Krishna was the only one to have been booked from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Akhtari Begum and Tabassum Malkana from Sindh and a Zaibun Nisa from Islamabad. The location of one Bushra Taseer booked under 295-C in 1996 was not clear from the records.
Nazia, Zaibun Nisa, Nasreen Bibi and Naseem Bibi were acquitted.
An ‘un-discriminatory’ law
There have been at least two cases, in which mentally-challenged women were also booked for blasphemy.
Zaibun Nisa, a mentally-challenged Muslim accused, was released after 14 years in prison. The Lahore High Court acquitted the 60-year-old on July 22, 2010.
In another case, Naseem Bibi, another mentally challenged person, was acquitted after eight months of being accused of blasphemy.
Acquitted not compensated
A case was registered against Nazia in June 2009 under Section 295-B of the Pakistan Penal Code in Kharian. Nazia, a Christian, always maintained that she did not desecrate the Quran, as was alleged. Soon after the registration of a case against her, she was socially boycotted and had to live alone for six months. The issue was resolved by local elders who found her ‘innocent’. Following that finding the case was dropped. “I hadn’t done anything of the kind and I was happy when the case was dropped. But the time as a person accused of blasphemy was the most difficult one,” she says.
Nasreen Bibi of Kabirwala was convicted and awarded life imprisonment but her conviction was later over turned by the Supreme Court.
However, none of the women acquitted filed for damages.
Peter Jacob, the Justice and Peace Commission of the Pakistani Church secretary, said that the women did not file defamation or damages suits against complainants because “they do not want the social pressure”. On how to ensure that the laws are not used to settle personal scores, Jacob added, “There should be a penalty for the complainant if his accusations cannot be proven in court. But this is just a safeguard. These laws have many weaknesses.” The secretary said that amendments proposed by Sherry Rehman to the bill that she has recently submitted in the National Assembly were a step in the right direction.
The bill proposes amendments to the Pakistan Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure, the two main sources of criminal law, calls for a clearer definition of the term ‘blasphemy’. The bill also calls for rationalising the criminal procedure, which includes the concept of premeditation or intent.
One of the most important changes the bill proposes is that it calls for the abolition of the mandatory death penalty.
Another amendment proposed proposes that the complainant take full responsibility if the accusations levelled by him are proven to be false.
The Express Tribune, December 1st, 2010.

Islamabad (Fides) - A detailed proposal for the revision of the blasphemy law has arrived at the National Assembly: Fides learned from Sherry Rehman, Muslim, parliamentarian of the “Pakistan Peoples Party”, which drafted the document and submitted it to the Secretariat of the Parliament, “hoping to discuss it and find a majority consensus in the Assembly.”
Ms Rehman – President of the prestigious Institute of Political Studies named after Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan - explained the reasons for the motion to Fides, anticipated by Fides a few days ago (see Fides 20/11/2010): “In the matter of Asia Bibi, international pressure has grown, domestic debate rages, the question is one of priorities at political, social and religious levels. This is why today we have a golden opportunity to discuss, finally, appropriate amendments to the blasphemy law.”
Among the various proposed changes contained in the document, sent to Fides, there are, for example: five years' imprisonment instead of the death penalty for those who commit the crime of blasphemy; severe penalties for those who deliver false accusations of blasphemy and those who incite religious hatred; the passage of proceedings for blasphemy within the jurisdiction of the High Court; the need for accurate trials and guarantees before the arrest of an accused.
The next session of Parliament is scheduled for 20 December: “We hope that the President of the Assembly inserts the motion into the working calendar. For 25 years, the country has supported legislation that was introduced by General Zia and was not approved by any Parliament. It is time to address this problem. In civil society there is growing consensus, even if there are protests from Islamic extremist groups,” emphasised Ms Rehman.
Of Cardinal Tauran's visit to Pakistan, she said: “We are happy. We welcome him and the support of the Holy See and the international community in the campaign for the respect of human rights. The law is shameful. It affects religious minorities (and not only those). It is manifestly unjust. The Prophet Muhammad, a good and just man, would not be a part of it. It is serious and it is wrong to act with violence and injustice in his name.”
Ms Rehman sees “great hope” for the matter of Asia Bibi: “Hers has become an international incident, and I believe it have a good result, either through the legal processes that will demonstrate her innocence, or via a presidential pardon. But I also believe that Asia, a symbol of the anti-blasphemy campaign can no longer live in Pakistan because it will be life-threatening for her. We should place her safely abroad.” (PA)

توہینِ رسالت قانون منسوخ کرنے کا مطالبہ
انسانی حقوق کےلیے کام کرنے والی بین الاقوامی تنظیم ہیومن رائٹس واچ نے حکومتِ پاکستان سے توہینِ رسالت اور دوسرے امتیازی قوانین کو منسوخ کرنے کا مطالبہ کیا ہے۔

ہیومن رائٹس واچ کی طرف سے جاری ایک بیان میں کہا گیا ہے کہ حکومتِ پاکستان توہین رسالت اور تمام امتیازی قوانین کو کالعدم قرار دینے کےلیے ترامیم متعارف کرائے اور ان شدت پسند گروپوں کے خلاف کارروائی کرے جو اس قانون کی آڑ میں اقلیتوں پر تشدد کرتے ہیں۔
یاد رہے کہ کچھ دن قبل پنجاب کے ضلع ننکانہ صاحب کے ایک گاؤں اٹاں والی کی رہائشی آسیہ کو ننکانہ صاحب کی مقامی عدالت نے توہین رسالت کے الزام میں موت اور ایک لاکھ روپے کی سزا سنائی تھی۔
تنظیم نے بین الاقوامی برادری سے بھی اپیل کی ہے کہ وہ پاکستان پر دباؤ ڈالے وہ پاکستان پینل کوڈ کی دفعات دو سو پچانوے اور دو سو اٹھانوے کو منسوخ کرے۔توہین رسالت کے الزام میں کسی خاتون کو سزائے موت دینے کا یہ پہلا واقعہ ہے اور اس پر ملک میں اور بیرون ملک انسانی حقوق کی تنظیموں نے سخت احتجاج کیا ہے۔

جنوبی ایشیا کے لیے ہیومن رائٹس واچ کے سینیئر محقق علی دیان حسن نے کہا ہے کہ آسیہ بی بی شدید مشکلات کا شکار ہیں اور انہیں قید میں نہیں رکھا جا سکتا۔ انہوں نے کہا کہ اقلیتوں کے ساتھ ناانصافی اور توہینِ رسالت کا خوف اس وقت ختم ہو سکتا ہے جب اس امتیازی قانون کو منسوخ کیا جاتا ہے۔
علی دیان حسن کے مطابق پنجاب کی حکومت اقلیتوں کو ملنے والی دھمکیوں نے لاعلمی کا اظہار کر رہی ہے اور یہ ایک امتیازی پالیسی ہے۔ انہوں نے کہا کہ صوبائی حکومت کو تعصب ایک طرف رکھ کر اقلیتوں کا تحفظ کرنا چاہیئے جو اس وقت کئی خطرات کا شکار ہیں۔
حکومت توہین رسالت کے قانون کے مبینہ غلط استعمال کو روکنے کے لیے قانون سازی کرنے کی تیاری کر رہی ہے اور اس سلسلے میں حزب اختلاف کی جماعتوں اور مذہبی تنظیموں سےمشاورت شروع کر دی ہے۔
شہباز بھٹی
ہیومن رائٹس واچ نے پنجاب کی صوبائی حکومت پر زور دیا ہے کہ وہ عیسائیوں، احمدیوں اور دوسری اقلیتوں پر ہو رہے پرتشدد واقعات کی غیرجانبدار تحقیقات کرے اور ملزمان کو انصاف کے کٹہرے تک پہنچائے۔
تنظیم نے بین الاقوامی برادری سے بھی اپیل کی ہے کہ وہ پاکستان پر دباؤ ڈالے وہ پاکستان پینل کوڈ کی دفعات دو سو پچانوے اور دو سو اٹھانوے کو منسوخ کرے۔
یاد رہے کہ کچھ دن پہلے اقلیتوں کے وفاقی وزیر شہباز بھٹی نے بی بی سی کے ساتھ بات کرتے ہوئےکہا حکومت توہین رسالت کے قانون کے مبینہ غلط استعمال کو روکنے کے لیے قانون سازی کرنے کی تیاری کر رہی ہے اور اس سلسلے میں حزب اختلاف کی جماعتوں اور مذہبی تنظیموں سےمشاورت شروع کر دی ہے۔
توہین رسالت کے قانون کے تحت پاکستان میں مقامی عدالتیں متعدد افراد کو موت کی سزا سنا چکی ہیں تاہم ابھی تک ایسی کسی سزا پر عمل درآمد نہیں ہو سکا ہے۔