Pakistani Blasphemy Law

INTERNATIONAL HUMANIST AND ETHICAL UNION
UNION INTERNATIONALE HUMANISTE ET LAIQUE

Statement by Representative, M. Younus Sheikh,
Tuesday, 13 April 2004
UN Commission on Human Rights: 60th session.
(15 March - 23 April 2004)

Mr. Chairman,

Sir, Muslims are the first victims of Islamism. In a novel and unethical way, Pakistani mullahs are abusing the dreadful Islamic Blasphemy laws to terrorise liberal and moderate Muslims.

There are over 100 persons in Pakistani jails accused of blasphemy, and either awaiting trial or under sentence of death. Most are Muslims, although a few are from minorities such as Ahmadis and Christians.

Blasphemy is a very serious crime in Islam, and no Muslim would willingly or knowingly blaspheme. The vast majority of people accused of blasphemy have been falsely accused. The Pakistani Islamic Blasphemy law, Section 295/C of the Pakistan Penal Code, is vague and susceptible to abuse, but carries a mandatory death penalty, with practically no right to bail and is, therefore, inherently oppressive, unjust and unethical. It is widely abused as an instrument for terrorizing political opponents and members of religious minorities, and for settling political, sectarian and petty rivalries. This is nothing less than religious terrorism through the abuse of the state apparatus and the civil law.

Sir, I speak from personal experience. I spent more than three years in prison in Pakistan, two and half in solitary confinement under sentence of death for blasphemy, after having been falsely accused. After a show trial and two appeals where my lawyers were harassed and threatened, I finally had to plead my own case at my retrial and, mercifully, was finally acquitted and released. The judge at my retrial said that the prosecution had failed to prove its case and that the mullahs and Islamic students, my accusers, had lied on oath.

While in jail my life was constantly under threat from fundamentalist inmates and other criminals imprisoned for gang rapes and murders. Many persons accused of blasphemy have been murdered in jail while awaiting trial, or after having been acquitted and released. After my release in November 2003, I found myself under a fatwa of death and had to flee to Europe for my safety.

I praise the efforts of the Pakistani government under President Pervez Musharraf for his liberal and secular steps, and for his courageous fight against Islamic jihadi terrorism, but decry the abuse of the Islamic Blasphemy laws for the purpose of imposing Islamic totalitarianism. I appeal to him to curb this blatant abuse of the law.

Mr Chairman, I also ask the UN Commission on Human Rights to press the Government of Pakistan to repeal these vague, unjust, and much-abused laws.

Thank you.

What is blasphemy?
Unfortunately the Pakistani Penal Code provides little guidance on what exactly constitutes blasphemy. The law is vague and the term is undefined. In view of the mandatory death penalty for the offence this would seem to be an important oversight. The law is a relic of 1860 British colonial criminal law but was modified in 1926, again under the British. In 1986 General Zia revised it again to be more strictly in accordance with the Sharia, and finally in 1992 it was revised again when the death penalty was made mandatory under the democratically-elected prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

Whereas the original law had been even-handed and applied equally to all religions, under the revised law the death penalty applies only to blasphemy against Islam. More than a hundred victims are currently in jail awaiting trial, 15 of whom face the death penalty under section 295 C of the Pakistan Penal Code. Mercifully, none have so far been executed.

In another famous case a Christian, Ayub Masih, was condemned to death for blasphemy on the unsupported evidence of a neighbour, Muhammad Akram, who was involved with him in a land dispute and who was awarded property belonging to the accused after the case was decided. The verdict and sentence were upheld by the Lahore High Court on July 25, 2001. However, after seven long years of unnecessary incarceration in the death cell, he was found innocent and acquitted by the Supreme Court.

Despite their successes in obtaining convictions, the fundamentalists have not been willing to leave judgement and execution to the courts. Several people have been murdered by Islamic zealots after having been acquitted by the courts. Others accused of blasphemy have been murdered in jail while awaiting trial and even a High Court judge was murdered after finding one prisoner not guilty.

Pakistan’s shame
The blasphemy law has brought shame on Pakistan. The law itself is unjust and inequitable, the offence it treats is poorly defined and open to abuse, and its operation has been widely misused and abused. Since the introduction of Sharia law in Pakistan in 1986, the blasphemy law has been used on hundreds of occasions by fundamentalists to silence moderate opponents, to intimidate non-Muslims and to settle personal scores.

The International Humanist and Ethical Union respectfully requests the government of Pakistan:

1) to urgently review the cases of all those currently charged or convicted of blasphemy and awaiting execution, including an urgent judicial review of all cases currently sub-judice;
2) to immediately review the application of the blasphemy law and to introduce safeguards against its abuse;
3) to replace the blasphemy law by laws which respect the human rights of individuals in conformity with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to which Pakistan is a signatory, and finally,
4) to compensate the victims of these unjust and iniquitous laws and to punish the false accusers and untruthful witnesses.

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