Journeys to democracy

It is good to see that there is widespread outrage in Pakistan against the latest ‘blasphemy murder’. Many groups are holding protest demos in different cities of Pakistan. Some people have started a collection drive to sponsor the lifelong education and other needs of the three children (details coming up).

The situation has been spiraling downhill since the early 1990s when the first ‘blasphemy murder’  was committed, right after the option of life imprisonment lapsed, making death the only option for 295-C convictions. This is not a religious, but a socio-political and legal issue stemming from many factors that need to be addressed. Every case investigated so far has been found to have ulterior motives. Half the cases registered are by members of one Muslim sect against another, or based on other motives like financial or business rivalry, land disputes, or caste – jealousies arising out of changes in the caste system (eg. Aasia Bibi, the Christian woman sentenced to death, and now this brick-kiln worker couple, also Christian).

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan been long pointing out that the severity of the punishment (mandatory death) is disproportion to the crime. The ‘blasphemy laws’  give a handle to the unscrupulous to settle scores. Also pertinent is ‘intent’, a word that was dropped when the military dictator Gen. Zia amended the ‘blasphemy’ laws. In this situation, the absence of rule of law in Pakistan, the lack of a witness protection plan, and the weaknesses in the law enforcing system with the police being poorly equipped and trained to be effective in these and other cases, make for a volatile situation.

These issues have been exacerbated by the promotion of a ‘takfiri’ (terming people non-Muslims) ideology perpetuated first through the Second Amendment of 1984 that declared Ahmadis as non-Muslims, followed by Gen. Ziaul Haq’s Martial Law Order 20 of 1984 that made it a criminal offense for Ahmadis to practice their faith as Muslims.

 

The Society for Secular Pakistan (SfSP) strongly condemns the killings of Shazad Masih and his pregnant wife Shama by the crowd incited by the clerics of three mosques of the villages in Kasur.

We demand that these clerics should be arrested and punished for inciting people’s religious feeling to kill the kiln worker who had reportedly some dispute with the kiln owner. Unfortunately this is not the first time that the sacred place of worship was used to incite and entice people to kill with impunity. There have been instances when some fanatics had announced hefty head money for killing so-called blasphemers and the state did not take any action although it’s a crime.

While the Society for Secular Pakistan stands for freedom expression, we demand that the state should register all mosques and the religious leader to keep a close check that nobody makes hate speeches from the pulpits. They should be free to preach their faith but not hatred. At present there is no check of the state on over 250,000 mosques and 20,000 madrassahs in the country.

The brutal Kasur incident is once again a rude reminder to the peace loving people of Pakistan that ever since perfidious General Zia amended the blasphemy law many more people have been killed by the fundamentalist vigilantes than before. Such killings in the name of religion are encouraged by the inappropriate blasphemy law in the country which needs amendments.

The recent judgment confirming the death sentence of Asiya Bibi creates an environment in which tolerance and civility are victims. We appeal to all democratic forces to protest against these killings and build public opinion against bigoted laws.

Dr Syed Haroon Ahmed, President
Released by: Babar Ayaz
SfSSP spokesperson