Blasphemy Law - Should Pakistan Scrap This?

[rickroll]

Like clock work, we keep getting incidents where someone is misusing blasphemy law for personal vendetta or misinterpreting it to punish an innocent or overextending the use of this law in a bad manner.

These laws seem to be inherited from the old British Raj and were then made more mainstream by the Zia administration - https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-48204815

Many innocent people have been charged with these (majority being muslims). This law seems to be weapon wielded by extremists, many of whom are probably not true followers of Islam. Why do we still have these?

 

[Cricket Warrior]

I am not in favor of scrapping this, but yeah we need to make use of it very carefully so that none can use it just to take revenge from anyone.

We need to make it quite strict!

 

[rickroll]

I am not in favor of scrapping this, but yeah we need to make use of it very carefully so that none can use it just to take revenge from anyone.

We need to make it quite strict!

"We need to make it quite strict" - sounds so subjective and full of grey areas. This will only lead to sustaining the current bad status quo of misusing blasphemy laws.

 

[Champ_Pal]

Like clock work, we keep getting incidents where someone is misusing blasphemy law for personal vendetta or misinterpreting it to punish an innocent or overextending the use of this law in a bad manner.

These laws seem to be inherited from the old British Raj and were then made more mainstream by the Zia administration - https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-48204815

Many innocent people have been charged with these (majority being muslims). This law seems to be weapon wielded by extremists, many of whom are probably not true followers of Islam. Why do we still have these?

Countries like Saudi, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan… all have Blasphemy laws in place. It’s not a British creation.

 

[BouncerGuy]

There are laws to regulate many things but still, people are so aggressive that they use it to their own advantage and misuse it when they want to. Blasphemy law is similar. Law is there but still, people are so brainwashed by scholars that they become violent and try to do harm to other people without knowing the reality.

 

[sweep_shot]

If someone misuses it, that person should get a long prison sentence.

 

[CricketCartoons]

If someone misuses it, that person should get a long prison sentence.

How will you prove if someone misused it?

 

[sweep_shot]

How will you prove if someone misused it?

It can be done with investigation.

For example, during recent incident, it was established that there was nothing offensive on the clothing. So, whoever started the rumor should be jailed or something.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

Like clock work, we keep getting incidents where someone is misusing blasphemy law for personal vendetta or misinterpreting it to punish an innocent or overextending the use of this law in a bad manner.

These laws seem to be inherited from the old British Raj and were then made more mainstream by the Zia administration - https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-48204815

Many innocent people have been charged with these (majority being muslims). This law seems to be weapon wielded by extremists, many of whom are probably not true followers of Islam. Why do we still have these?

If they are extremists, then how can they be using this law for personal vendettas or using to punish innocents?

 

[Major]

It can be done with investigation.

For example, during recent incident, it was established that there was nothing offensive on the clothing. So, whoever started the rumor should be jailed or something.

how do you proof an alleged verbal blasphemy?

 

[RexRex]

Any normal country would have removed this nonsensical law by now. And yes, it was introduced during the days of the British Raj.

 

[sweep_shot]

how do you proof an alleged verbal blasphemy?

Looks like you misunderstood my post.

My post was for the accuser. Not the accused. Accuser has to have concrete proof before accusing someone.

 

[rickroll]

If they are extremists, then how can they be using this law for personal vendettas or using to punish innocents?

True. I should rephrase my original sentence to this - This law seems to be weaponized by unscrupulous people, many of whom are probably not true followers of Islam.

 

[hassan918]

The question is irrelevant because we all know that it is not possible in the next few decades at least with the kind of pressure there will be from a very large number of people in the country. If someone makes an attempt to scarp this law, he/she would be in danger of losing his/her life.

 

[Cricket Warrior]

I m not in favor of scrapping it but we need to ensure that this law is implemented genuinely and not for any personal agendas.

 

[rickroll]

The question is irrelevant because we all know that it is not possible in the next few decades at least with the kind of pressure there will be from a very large number of people in the country. If someone makes an attempt to scarp this law, he/she would be in danger of losing his/her life.

This seems to be the sad reality for Pakistan. Others are planning missions to moon, AI research etc while our society is infested with people trying to prove their fake virtues by protesting Arabic script on women's clothing.

 

[BouncerGuy]

Scraping a law is not that easy. especially when it has a religious aspect to it. People will come crashing down on the roads for this thing.

 

[DeadlyVenom]

Scraping a law is not that easy. especially when it has a religious aspect to it. People will come crashing down on the roads for this thing.

It will be considered blasphemy to revoke the blasphemy law.

 

[Cricket Warrior]

Any normal country would have removed this nonsensical law by now. And yes, it was introduced during the days of the British Raj.

there is noting wrong with this law all we need to be more responsible in a way not to use it just to take revange from anyone.

 

[ex-q-zit]

It doesn't matter whther the Blasphemy Law is scrapped or not as more often than not these cases dont go to court but instant judgement and execution is done on the streets by teh mob. Be it Priyantha the SriLankan manager or in Jaranwala last year. So if teh law is scrapped then it means official license is given to these mobs to deliver "Justice" on the spot.

It will take a few decades of deradicalization of teh society before this law can even be touched. We all know what happened to Salman Taseer after he suggested scrapping the law.

 

[CricketCartoons]

It doesn't matter whther the Blasphemy Law is scrapped or not as more often than not these cases dont go to court but instant judgement and execution is done on the streets by teh mob. Be it Priyantha the SriLankan manager or in Jaranwala last year. So if teh law is scrapped then it means official license is given to these mobs to deliver "Justice" on the spot.

It will take a few decades of deradicalization of teh society before this law can even be touched. We all know what happened to Salman Taseer after he suggested scrapping the law.

Instead of scrapping the law, the law should be made stricter, by arresting the accused immediately and do the investigation and judgement in a month max. The state should kill people so that people don't have to kill people. That is one of the goals of justice.

 

[RexRex]

Instead of scrapping the law, the law should be made stricter, by arresting the accused immediately and do the investigation and judgement in a month max. The state should kill people so that people don't have to kill people. That is one of the goals of justice.

Why not just scrap the blasphemy law and then make stricter/enforce the rules that allow arrest of anyone who takes the law into their own hands ?

 

[Stewie]

It doesn't matter whther the Blasphemy Law is scrapped or not as more often than not these cases dont go to court but instant judgement and execution is done on the streets by teh mob. Be it Priyantha the SriLankan manager or in Jaranwala last year. So if teh law is scrapped then it means official license is given to these mobs to deliver "Justice" on the spot.

It will take a few decades of deradicalization of teh society before this law can even be touched. We all know what happened to Salman Taseer after he suggested scrapping the law.

thats absolutely correct. The question is not whether the law itself should be scrapped, its the mob justice mentality thats the problem.our people seem to think they are not doing anything against the law by taking the law into their own hands when it comes to this matter. There are a number of reasons behind this phenomenon. Overall rise in extremism in the country since the 80s, is one. Also, the general perception spread by the Mulla is that "every" muslim is respnsible for dishing out justice for blasphemy. now that is not the law of the land. the judge, jury and executioner part is defined in the laws and it is not in the hands of the common man. Another observation is that people have used this excuse to settle personal scores or to justify violence against minorities.

The bottomline is Pakistanis flout laws all the time and they mean nothing to them. Thats how the people are. Perhaps we should be discussing this negative trait, rather than the law itself.

 

[Champ_Pal]

Pakistan should stop vacillating around Islam. They should either become a full Islamic country or embrace a full democracy like Western nations. When the nation claims to be Islamic but does not implement the rules and laws, people may take matters into their own hands.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

Instead of scrapping the law, the law should be made stricter, by arresting the accused immediately and do the investigation and judgement in a month max. The state should kill people so that people don't have to kill people. That is one of the goals of justice.

This is the correct answer. If there is a blasphemy law then the constitution isn't secular. In which case at least the theocratic law should be administered correctly by the qualified bodies, not some rent a mob mullah from adda #26 Mian Channu. Unless the qualified body is actually based in adda #26 Mian Channu.

 

[Cover Drive Six]

Pakistan student sentenced to death over 'blasphemous' WhatsApp messages​

A22-year-old student was sentenced to death by a court in Pakistan while a 17-year-old was sent to jail for life on charges of blasphemy over WhatsApp messages, reported BBC.

The judges of the court in Pakistan's Punjab Province said the 22-year-old was sentenced to death for preparing photos and videos which contained allegedly derogatory words about Prophet Muhammad and his wives.

The court said the student shared the blasphemous content "with the intention of outraging the religious feelings of Muslims".

The teenager was sentenced to life imprisonment for sharing the material. Both denied the charges and their lawyers argued they had been "trapped in a false case", as per the BBC report.

The complaint against the two was filed in 2022 by the cybercrime unit of Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in Lahore.

The complainant alleged that he received the videos and photos with blasphemous content from three different mobile phone numbers. The probe agency established that "obscene material" was sent to the complainant after examining his phone.

The father of the 22-year-old student told the BBC that he was filing an appeal in the Lahore High Court against the verdict on his son.

Blasphemy is punishable by death in Pakistan. Laws against blasphemy were first codified by India's British rulers and expanded in the 1980s under Pakistan's military government.

https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/worl...p&cvid=0a9926e3edbf4eb4a675b7c3f2c6d38e&ei=26

 

[Romali_rotti]

To the OP.

Imo no not really. Pakistan as I have said numerous times here, is a lost cause, it cant be revived, so might as well just leave everything as it is.

 

[Markhor]

The mob frenzies and savage killings are more offensive than the (usually groundless) allegations levelled against the people accused.

The problem is after these laws are enacted and the poison of religious hatred is injected into society's bloodstream, it's very difficult to reverse.

People have been killed for seeking reform to the law forget repealing it.

 

[JaDed]

Its punishable by death? What

 

[CricketCartoons]

Its punishable by death? What

The state should kill so that common people don't have to.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

Scraping a law is not that easy. especially when it has a religious aspect to it. People will come crashing down on the roads for this thing.

The last time I can think where secular law was enforced in a Muslim country was Turkey after the fall of the Ottoman empire, but then the nation was shattered so change was probably easier to push through. Plus the Turks were probably a bit more civilised than current day Pakistan which still suffers from mob frenzy mentality which seems to be ingrained even before the creation of Pakistan in the Indic culture.

The question needs to be asked, would secular law be more effective in keeping Pakistanis from cheating the law, or would stricter enforcement of Sharia? Which would shake the cheating conniving minds of the scoundrel more?

 

[Cricket Warrior]

Two women get death sentence in KP’s DI Khan over ‘blasphemy’ murder

Two women have been sentenced to death for murdering their madrassa teacher who they accused of committing blasphemy in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, police said on Wednesday.

Blasphemy is an incendiary charge in Pakistan, where even unproven allegations of insulting Islam have provoked deadly vigilantism.

Police said the “three female students allegedly slaughtered their local female cleric over blasphemy allegations” in Dera Ismail Khan in March 2022.

A district judge “handed down the death penalty to two local madrasa students and a life sentence to one upon proving their involvement in the murder,” local police official Muhammad Haris told AFP.

The pair sentenced to death are aged 23 and 24 whilst the one sentenced to life in jail is 16, he said.

Two women get death sentence in KP’s DI Khan over ‘blasphemy’ murder

Pair sentenced to death are aged 23 and 24 whilst the one sentenced to life in jail is 16

www.aajenglish.tv

 

[ElRaja]

been a long time since i bothered even talking about blasphemy, its the dumbest law and no one can make any kind of mature argument to defend it, but as someone said pak has far more problems then blasphemy laws, just let em have their fun.

 

[rickroll]

been a long time since i bothered even talking about blasphemy, its the dumbest law and no one can make any kind of mature argument to defend it, but as someone said pak has far more problems then blasphemy laws, just let em have their fun.

Sad but true. I feel shocked that there are people in this very thread advocating for this barbaric medieval law.

 

[Justcrazy]

"We need to make it quite strict" - sounds so subjective and full of grey areas. This will only lead to sustaining the current bad status quo of misusing blasphemy laws.

Misusing certain law does not mean you have to scrap that.

There have been several fake cases registered and latter the women were convicted. That does not mean we do away with that. Many murders have been committed by knives , so should it be banned?

There are loopholes in lot of laws , but we learn to live with them.

 

[BouncerGuy]

Woman in Lahore gets life term for ‘blasphemy’

A sessions court on Thursday handed down life imprisonment to a woman on the charge of desecration of the Holy Quran.

Hayer police registered the first information report of the incident in 2021 under section 295-B of Pakistan Penal Code against ‘A’, 40, a resident of Bedian Road.

Defence counsel argued that the accused had been falsely implicated in a fabricated case.

He said there were glaring contradictions and dishonest improvements in the statements of the prosecution witnesses. He maintained that it was the duty of the investigating officer to investigate the matter thoroughly in line with the Police Rules and Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) but it was not done.

The counsel questioned the prosecution story saying why any private person from the vicinity who allegedly witnessed the alleged occurrence did not turn up as complainant and the case was registered on the complaint of a police official.

Assistant District Public Prosecutor Mohazib Awais stated that the accused was caught red-handed while burning a copy of the Quran, which was also recovered on the spot.

He contended that the prosecution proved its case against the accused beyond any shadow of doubt and mere technicalities cannot absolve the accused of her criminal liability.

Additional District & Sessions Judge Imran Sheikh maintained the prosecution established its case beyond any shadow of doubt and the ingredients of section 295-B PPC were fully made out regarding the act of burning a copy of Quran by the accused.

Addressing the point of the woman’s mental health, the judge noted that the issue of mental health of the accused was not pressed forcefully.

However, he said the investigating officer produced the accused, after her arrest, before a judicial magistrate and an application for her medical examination was also submitted.

The judge noted that the magistrate wrote in his order that the accused woman did not want her medical examination and it was also observed by the magistrate that the accused responded to questions “rationally”.

During the trial, the judge observed, no such defence plea was taken by accused that she was suffering from any disorder at the time of alleged occurrence.

SOURCE: DAWN

 

[hassan918]

Fact check: Christian man, son from Sargodha mob violence have not been killed​

Multiple posts and an image circulating on social media since Sunday claimed that the Christian man subjected to mob violence in Sargodha over the alleged desecration of the Holy Quran was killed along with his son. However, a close relative has confirmed the claims to be false.

The police on Saturday rescued the man as well as two Christian families from the enraged mob that wanted to lynch him and barge into the homes of some other members of the minority community.

The incident had taken place after some residents of the colony found burned pages near an electric pole and the houses of the Christian family.

On Sunday, an X user shared an image of a woman cradling a man with his eyes closed.

The caption said: “Protesting and crying for Palestine, while killing this innocent Christian brother and his father, over false blasphemy allegations, explains our hypocrisy. Each and every Pakistani, who was involved, must be arrested and an example should be made!”

The post gained over 16,000 views.

In a similar X post today, LUMS professor Dr Taimur Rahman said: “N* and his father were murdered over false blasphemy allegations. This is what mullahs can achieve even without state power. If they had state power, they will ensure that there would be no non-Muslims left in Pakistan.”

The post gained over 44,000 views and was also reshared by The News journalist Arshad Yousafzai.

However, a nephew of the victim told Dawn.com that he (his uncle) was “fine and alive” and has since been moved to a different hospital for treatment.

Sargodha Regional Police Officer Shariq Kamal also said on Sunday that there was “no casualty and no seriously injured [person]” in the incident .

Additionally, there were no reports or mention of the father or son being killed by Dawn.com’s correspondent or other credible news outlets in their coverage of the incident.

Furthermore, the claims also misattributed the man’s name, which has been withheld for security purposes, as being that of his son.

Therefore, Dawn.com has determined that the claims of a Christian man and his son lynched in Saturday’s act of mob violence in Sargodha are inaccurate. Both the family and police confirmed that there were no deaths and the circulating posts also misattributed the identity of the man.

Source: DAWN

 

[Cricket Warrior]

Murder charges included in Sargodha mob violence FIR after victim dies in Pindi

Murder charges were included in the Sargodha mob violence first information report after the victim succumbed to his injuries in Rawalpindi’s Combined Military Hospital on Monday.

“Section 7 [punishment for acts of terrorism] of the Anti-Terrorism Act has been registered against over 250 to 300 unidentified men and Section 302 [punishment of qatl-i-amd] of the Pakistan Penal Code case was also included in the FIR today,” Sardar Ramesh Singh Arora, the Punjab minorities affairs minister, said in an interview with Spot Light with Munizae Jahangir aired on Aaj News.

He was asked about the investigation into the Sargodha mob violence.

Last month, police arrested 26 people for mob violence and attempt to lynch a Christian man while registering a case against 44 nominated and 300/400 unidentified suspects.

Arora said that at least 28 people have been identified while 34 more suspects would be brought for identification. He added that the investigation was under way and more than 28 suspects have been sent to jail on judicial remand.

He went on to add that most such cases were reported in poverty-stricken areas populated by Christians or Hindus. “It is easy to make accusations,” he said and added that Muslims have also been at the receiving end of blasphemy allegations.

While sharing details of the Sargodha incident, he said that upon visiting the area he came to know that the victim and some people in the area quarrelled two to three days before the incident.


AAJ News

 

[FearlessRoar]

National Assembly passes resolution condemning rising mob lynching incidents​

The National Assembly (NA) on Sunday passed a resolution vehemently condemning the recent horrific and tragic incidents of mob lynching in various parts of the country.

The resolution, moved by Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar, emphasized that the right to life is the most cherished right enshrined in the Constitution of Pakistan. It stated, "Every person is to be dealt with in accordance with the law and not otherwise."

The House expressed serious concern over the mob lynching of citizens accused of offenses in Swat and Sargodha, noting with grave concern that such incidents have been on the rise. "Such actions cannot be tolerated in any civilized society," it declared.

The NA urged both the federal and provincial governments to ensure the safety and security of all citizens, including religious minorities and other vulnerable segments of society.

It called for the provincial governments of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab to take immediate and necessary measures to identify, investigate, and prosecute those involved in these incidents under the relevant laws.

Furthermore, the House expressed the expectation that the courts would ensure immediate and speedy justice in these cases. It underscored the need for swift legal action to prevent future occurrences of such tragic events.

National Assembly passes resolution condemning rising mob lynching incidents | The Express Tribune

Lower house stresses need for federal, provincial govts to ensure safety of religious minorities and vulnerable groups

tribune.com.pk

 

[ElRaja]

what value does condemnation have? and what value does prosecution have when the perpetrators believe they will be rewarded for this act?

pakistanis should accept this is part of the countries culture, maybe just give people open warnings so at least people know what they are getting into.