Abstract
Pakistan has some of the world’s harshest blasphemy laws, and the punishments are often handed out by violent mobs, writes
A demonstrater protests the Supreme Court decision to overturn the conviction of Asia Bibi on 2 November 2018 in Lahore, Pakistan. Bibi is a Christian woman who spent eight years on death row after a dispute with neighbours resulted in her being accused of blasphemy. The decision triggered violent protests by religious hardliners
CREDIT: Pacific Press Media Production Corp. / Alamy
Screenshots of the post circulated locally, but tensions increased when the local mosque made announcements asking people to protest, leading many Christian families to flee in fear. Members of Shehzad’s family also had to hide because even the initial protests caused them to fear for their lives. Shehzad was granted pre-arrest bail, but held in “protective custody”. At his bail hearing, which he was not allowed to attend, people shouted slogans in the courtroom and warned Shehzad’s lawyers that they might be attacked.
Shehzad’s case is one of many, and accusations of blasphemy under Pakistan’s penal code are punishable by imprisonment, fines and even death. With accusations under this law increasing, Shehzad risks being just another number among the lives threatened and lost to lynching, mob violence and years of court proceedings.
In August 2023, lawmakers passed changes to blasphemy laws which will increase the scope and punishments, with possible life sentences for anyone who insults companions and wives of the Prophet Muhammad. It put the issue in the spotlight once again, but even when there’s no media attention, this is an issue that never goes away.
“This isn’t something that has happened recently. The embeddedness of religion and influence of religious leaders in our daily life in Pakistan is so high,” said development worker Elaine Alam. And while lawmakers cited this change as a way to stop misuse of the law, Alam doesn’t believe that to be accurate.
“In Pakistan’s case, the effect on public understanding [of the law] is a very dangerous one,” she said. As seen in Shehzad’s situation and the hundreds of cases before his, people take the law into their own hands long before the legal system gets a chance.
As part of the country’s penal code, clauses were added to existing laws between 1980 and 1986 that detailed a series of different offences - from disturbing religious rituals and disrespect against the Prophet to other categories of insult or derogatory remarks.
Data from the National Commission for Justice and Peace shows that between 1987 and 2018, 776 Muslims, 505 Ahmedis, 229 Christians and 30 Hindus were accused of blasphemy. More concerning trends associated with these accusations are the lynchings and mob violence that have become a common reaction by the public.
Noman Masih, a 22-year-old Christian from Bahawalpur, was sentenced to death on 30 May - four years after his arrest. Lazar Allah Rakha, Masih’s lawyer, has been a human rights defender for more than 20 years. He told Index, in response to the outcome of Masih’s case: “There was no proof, and it was clear there was a lot of pressure as the judge waited five months after the hearing to announce the verdict.”
Legal analyst and researcher Peter Jacob, the executive director of the Pakistan-based research and advocacy organisation Centre for Social Justice, has been working on issues related to the blasphemy laws since the 1990s. He said that he’s observed how these laws are used to accuse more Muslims than minority groups, but that the first resulting death by lynching was of a Christian teacher.
Speaking of the law, he said: “It’s a unique example because there isn’t, in modern times, any legislation which criminalises certain presupposed acts, so there’s a problem with the text, not only the use. The text itself is creating space for misuse and massive abuse.
“The law fails to define what respect is. If you cannot define disrespect, any action can be constituted as disrespect when law itself is neutral. As long as it stays like this, it’s a ground for people to create an infrastructure of hatred and it’ll create a demand for victims.”
Jacob’s words come from decades of observing the use of the law and its impact on social structure and power dynamics. Allah Rakha has noticed similar trends in his law practice. He said that, while he feels a responsibility to take these cases, other lawyers are too afraid to associate with the issues. He often observes how the accused lose so much of their lives, even when acquitted. The damage caused by these laws runs far deeper than just the verdicts.
“There’s the case of Mohammad Asif, which has been going on for 10 years and yet not even one witness has been allowed. Multiple lawyers came and left that case, and he’s spent 10 years in jail despite the medical board filing a report saying he is medically insane,” Allah Rakha said.
He references numerous other cases and points out that despite not one person actually being hanged for a blasphemy offence, lives are ruined every day. He’s seen families having to go underground, and had cases where the accused is ostracised from society long before the court reaches its verdict.
Much of his aim with his work has been to show the country’s Muslim majority that non-Muslims are law-abiding citizens, just as they are. But laws such as this make that difficult because it becomes easy to paint a target on anyone’s back.
Farah Zia, director of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, points out that “blasphemy laws are often misused to settle personal scores, or to grab property — because the threshold of evidence is very low”.
Activists also highlight that the government has a large role to play in exacerbating this issue, not only in creating the laws but also in turning a blind eye to escalating situations.
“There has to be an acknowledgement at the parliamentary level that abuse is happening. The government doesn’t admit the law has any problem,” said Jacob. “Our society is held hostage to a mindset that’s taken a deep root in our society and now the government wants to avoid the issue which has aggravated the situation. Four people have been lynched and there have been 70 cases this year alone.”
Decades of ignoring the issue have created a deep-set rot, and the result is a violent reaction from mobs at the mere hint of an accusation.
“There’s no solution except education,” Alam said. “Education which helps you critically analyse, helps you put others first [and] helps you understand civil liberties and what exactly nationalism is, because it’s not just faith.”