Pakistan's blasphemy laws enable mob violence, targeting of minorities for criminal prosecutions: Report

Islamabad, April 26 (IANS) Blasphemy laws in Pakistan allow abuse, mob violence, and the targeting of individuals and religious minorities, including Christians, for criminal prosecutions that carry life sentences and death penalties, a report has stated.

For instance, Pakistani professor Junaid Hafeez is imprisoned and sentenced to death for alleged blasphemy.

According to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), Pakistani authorities arrested Hafeez, a lecturer at Bahauddin Zakariya University, after his students accused him of blaspheming Islam on social media in 2013. In 2014, authorities put him in solitary confinement after other prisoners repeatedly targetted him.

During the same year, two gunmen shot to death Hafeez's lawyer, Rashin Rehman, in his office, according to a report in American media outlet PJ Media.

In December 2019, a district and sessions court in Multan sentenced Hafeez to death for "insulting the Prophet Muhammad".

He was also sentenced to life in prison for "desecrating the Qur'an" and was given 10 years' imprisonment for "intending to outrage religious feelings". Before his arrest, Hafeez received a master's degree in the United States on a Fulbright Scholarship and had specialised in American literature, photography, and theatre.

On February 27, the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ) submitted an official contribution to the UN Special Rapporteur regarding summary, extrajudicial, or arbitrary executions in Pakistan. In it, the ECLJ criticised the mandatory and automatic imposition of the death penalty for blasphemy against Islam in the country.

The individuals accused of blasphemy in Pakistan are sentenced to death by hanging. The death penalty in blasphemy cases is egregious and disproportionate and clearly amounts to torture, according to a report in PJ Media.

Pakistan has never carried out the death sentence in blasphemy cases. However, the accused spend years in prison on death row and many accused and their families faced mob violence. Pakistani authorities have also failed to stop mob violence in blasphemy cases.

On February 26, Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), stated that Junaid Hafeez's case is "emblematic of the unjust and abusive nature of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws".

She called on authorities to quash Hafeez's conviction and release him and others held under blasphemy laws, according to the report.

"Even an accusation of blasphemy can trigger mob violence against victims, as well as their families and the wider Christian community. On August 16, 2023, allegations of blasphemy against two Christian residents in Jaranwala (Faisalabad district of Punjab Province) led to a Muslim mob vandalizing and destroying over 20 churches and more than 80 Christian houses.

Pakistan’s government has failed to deliver justice for the Christian community in Jaranwala, as well as to prevent further misuse of blasphemy laws," Uzay Bulut, Turkey-born journalist formerly based in Ankara, wrote in a report in PJ Media.

In 2024, Amnesty International stated that over 90 per cent of the suspects of the attack in Jaranwala remain at large.

Meanwhile, the trials of those arrested in connection with the attacks, triggered by false allegations of blasphemy against two Christian residents, are yet to begin.

Furthermore, around 40 per cent of the minority Christian families impacted by the violence are still waiting for government compensation.

--IANS

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