Pakistan's Blasphemy Laws Under Spotlight As Cases Of 'Insult' To Prophet Surface | Explained

Pakistan's blasphemy laws have once again come under the spotlight after few cases of arrests in this regard have been reported in the media. The laws forbid any individual from making any verbal or non-verbal action that may be deemed insulting to the Islam's Prophet.

On Tuesday, September 25, a former employee of the Pakistani Senate was arrested on charges of blasphemy for allegedly insulting the Prophet on his Facebook page in Pakistan's Punjab province.

Tauseef Shahzad -- a resident of Cheechawatni city -- was booked under Section 295 (C) of the Pakistan Penal Code which forbids insult to the Prophet and Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997, police said.

Section 295(C) carries a minimum punishment of mandatory life sentence and the maximum penalty is death. The Pakistani Federal Shariah Court had in 1990 ruled that the death penalty should be mandatory.

According to the FIR, sub-Inspector Shamsul Hasan had opened Facebook during his night duty and stumbled upon what they said were blasphemous posts uploaded on Shahzad's account. And it was on the basis of Hasan's complaint, that the suspect was arrested.

ACCUSED FOR BLASPHEMY

On September 24, the family of a doctor -- Shah Nawaz -- accused of blasphemy claimed that he had been killed by police while in custody in southern Pakistan after he voluntarily surrendered following being assured that he would be given a chance to prove his innocence.

Nawaz, a doctor in Sindh province's Umerkot district, had gone into hiding last week after being accused of insulting Islam's Prophet Muhammad and posting blasphemous content on Facebook. He said someone had hacked his account, adding that he had not posted anything against Islam.

Nawaz was arrested last week and killed hours later in a fake encounter with the police. On the same day, a mob had also set fire to Nawaz's clinic, officials said.

However, police said that Nawaz was killed unintentionally when officers in the Mirpur Khas city signalled for two men on a motorcyle to stop, who instead of stopping, opened fire and tried to flee. In this situation, police had to shot, killing one of the two men. Police officials realised only after the shooting that the dead man was none other than the doctor, who they sought after for alleged blasphemy.

The doctor's father had even said that a mob snatched his son's body after his death and burnt it in front of him . "They sprinkled petrol on the body of my son and burned it, as I watched helplessly," Nawaz's father was quoted as saying by The Associated Press.

A week before this, an officer had opened fire inside a police station in southwestern Pakistan's Quetta, killing another suspect held on blasphemy charges, Syed Khan. He was arrested after police officers rescued him from an infuriated mob who claimed that he insulted the Islam's prophet.

Last month, a blogger from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir -- Asma Batool -- was charged with blasphemy and put in jail for sharing a poem on the harassment women face in South Asian countries in light of the Kolkata doctor's rape and murder case.

The poem by Salman Haider which was shared on Facebook read, "All the gods were witness when I was being violated," The Print reported. Following this, the police picked her up on charges of blasphemy after religious leaders filed an FIR against her for allegedly insulting Allah.

Following this, activists from across the country demanded her release along with the removal of fabricated charges against her.

Several such cases have surfaced in media reports, bringing the curiosity around blasphemy laws in Pakistan. Instances of people being charged under blasphemy provisions and prosecuted on those basis for making comments on social media has become a dangerous escalation in the country.

In 2019, a Hindu veterinarian Ramesh Kumar, was arrested in Sindh under the charges of blasphemy. A local religious cleric had claimed that Kumar sold medicines packaged in paper which bore Islamic religious text. His entire neighbourhood protested over his arrests, with mobs reportedly damaging at least three-Hindu owned shops there. Kumar still remains in government custody awaiting trial.

From a WhatsApp message to a Facebook post, anything can get you closer to a death sentence.

A Lense At Pak's Blasphemy Laws

Pakistan's Blasphemy law, inherited from British colonial rule, was expanded during the 1980s. According to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), Pakistan -- which was declared as an Islamic Republic 1956 -- institutionalised the relationship between the state and Islamic faith. Following this the country sought to protect the beliefs of its majority religion against any actions "intended to outrage religious feelings".

Under sections 295 and 298 of Pakistan's Penal Code, all persons are prohibited from any verbal or non-verbal actions that maybe deemed insulting to the religion, its practice or the Prophet.

Pakistan's blasphemy law states that "any derogatory remarks, etc., in respect of the Holy Prophet (Muhammad) either spoken or written, or by visible representation, or by any imputation, innuendo, or insinutation, directly or indirectly shall be punished with death, or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine".

In addition to this law, Pakistan's Penal Code also describes stringent punishment against Ahmadiyya Muslim community, which comprises nearly 4 million people in the country.

President Zia ul-Huq had in 1984 introduced Sections 298-A and 298-B, which make it a criminal offense for Ahmadis to call themselves Muslims or use Muslim worship practices, or share their faith. Therefore, Ahmadis are prohibited from publicly declaring their faith or obtaining material related to their faith, citing the Quran, building mosques or referring to their places of worship as mosques.

Ahmadis are also required to sign a declaration statement that they are not Muslim. On top of this, to get voters' right, they must either renounce their faith or be placed on a separate electoral list.

As per USCIRF, the Ahmadiyya community also has faced intensified targeted violence and discrimination against throughout 2023.

SUPPORT TO BLASPHEMY LAWS, RISKS FOR MINORITIES

Though Pakistan's Supreme Court and other officials have recognised that false cases of blasphemy has become a growing problem, especially those used to target religious minorities and political leaders, they have made no serious moves towards repealing the law.

Former Prime Minister Imran Khan had supported the law openly. In 2018 campaign speech, Khan had said, "We are standing with Article 295C and will defend it." Later in 2021 as well, he had called for Muslim-majority countries to unite and lobby the Western governments to criminalise any insulting of Islam's Prophet, Al Jazeera reported.

And though Khan supported the blasphemy law, his political opponents also blamed him for committing blasphemy.

A media report said that though most of the individuals accused of blasphemy as Muslims, religious minorities also face an acute-level of threat. Al Jazeera cited activists as saying that convictions on these charges depend on witness testimony and are often linked to personal vendettas.

Notably, while the Pakistan government has not executed anyone for blasphemy, but those charged with the accusations -- allegedly called 'blasphemers' have been killed by non-state actors.