Blasphemy: A Crime in Pakistan Penal Code versus the Traditional Perspective

This paper seeks to examine the compatibility between the blasphemy laws in Pakistan and the traditional Islamic jurisprudence governing the same. In order to achieve its aim, this paper undertakes a discussion of the historical context in which the traditional Islamic principles governing ‘blasphemy’ and ‘apostasy’ were enunciated. This context provides a working standard for a critical assessment of the Pakistani law against apostasy and blasphemy. However, any assessment of the current legal framework in Pakistan remains incomplete without an analysis of the historical and constitutional context in which the blasphemy laws were introduced in British India and, subsequently, in Pakistan. Accordingly, this paper offers a comparative analysis of the laws introduced in these territories in terms of definition, intention and their relation to religion, and will examine the extent to which the blasphemy laws in Pakistan reflect traditional Islamic law. The analysis will highlight the difference in the spirit of these laws in order to unravel the precise legislative intent underlying the penalisation of blasphemy in traditional Islamic jurisprudence, in the legal provisions of British India and, subsequently, in the Pakistani legal landscape. The benefit of this approach is to provide assistance in drawing a comparative contrast between the legal elements, such as the actus reus, intention, evidence, defences, procedure and punishment, in traditional Islamic jurisprudence and that of the law in Pakistan. Where necessary, a resort to case law, enunciated by the higher judicature of Pakistan, has been made in order to facilitate the discussion regarding the meaning and operation of these laws.

Shayan Malik is a Public Policy student in the MPA Public and Nonprofit Management and Policy program at NYU Wagner. He has a bachelors in Law from the University of London International Programmes and is an alumnus of the Pakistan College of Law. He has worked as a research analyst focusing on international politics and security at Spearhead Research in Lahore, in communications for the Justice Project Pakistan and as the Advocacy and External Relations Intern at the UN trust Fund to end Violence against Women.