LAHORE: Pakistan has been under international pressure to amend the blasphemy law. Under the present law, the simplest act can spiral into charges that can bring the death penalty. In January, the US State Department cited the law as one of the reasons as it put Pakistan on a watch list of countries accused of "severe violations of religious freedoms."
Opponents of the blasphemy law say it has turned into a force corroding Pakistani society, feeding extremism, implicating the justice system in radicalism and ultimately undermining rule of law. Often the law is used to punish rivals in personal feuds. Just making an accusation is enough to convince neighbors or others in the community that the defendant is guilty and must be punished, whipping up a vengeful anger even if the courts find the accused innocent. Authorities are often too afraid to push back against the public fury.
Militant groups have embraced the law, using it to cultivate support and attack those who try to break their power. "It has become much more dangerous over the last few years. The reason is that they have created a sense of fear," said Zahid Hussain, a political analyst and the author of two books on militancy in Pakistan. At least 1,472 people were charged under Pakistan's blasphemy laws between 1987 and 2016. Of those, 730 were Muslims, 501 were Ahmedis while 205 were Christians and 26 were Hindus. While Pakistan's law carries the death penalty and offenders have been sentenced to death, so far no one has been executed. A key test will come when Pakistan's Supreme Court rules on the case of Aasia, a Christian women sentenced to death after a mob of villagers accused her of insulting Islam and the Prophet Muhammad.
Aasia's case even reached the Vatican, where Pope Francis last month met with her husband, Ashiq Masih, and daughter Eisham, who travelled to Rome. "The blasphemy law is misused in Pakistan," Masih said in an interview. "It has nothing to do with the Holy Prophet or Islam, it is just to settle grudges."
Aasia's lawyer, Saiful Malook fears the Supreme Court will buckle to extremists' pressure and reject his client's appeal when it hears it later this month. Her only hope in that case would be a presidential pardon, he said. Fear of being connected with a blasphemy case is so strong that Nasreen Abid, a Christian woman, moved out of earshot of others and whispered as she told a news agency her family's story. "There shouldn't be this law," Abid said. In Jand Wala Saroo, a small village near Pakistan's border with India, Razia Bibi wonders whether she will ever again see her brother, Muhammad Mansha. Mansha spent nine years in jail accused of blasphemy until the Supreme Court acquitted him last year, saying the evidence was insufficient. But he remains imprisoned because authorities say his release would start a riot in the village.
Hussain, the analyst and author, said most Pakistani politicians privately acknowledge the need to change the law, but are too afraid. Also they often use religious groups when they need them to win elections.
"Neither the military nor the civilian government has a clear strategy how to deal with extremism or militancy in this country," said Hussain. "For me this is the biggest threat to Pakistan because if extremism is not controlled or contained . . . it is going to destroy the social fabric of this country."
