Pakistan a cul-de-sac for christians

The indelible stigma and shame of Shanti Nagar 1997, Sangla Hill 2005, Gojra 2009 and Badami Bagh Lahore 2013 had not yet abated and the wounds of Christians had not fully healed when at least 75 people were killed and over 340 injured in a suicide bombing that hit the main entrance of Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park, one of the largest parks in Lahore, Pakistan. The attack targeted Christians who were celebrating Easter. A ruthless Taliban splinter group that vows to attack soft targets claimed responsibility for the attack and said that it was targeting Christians.

Social persecution and discrimination against religious minorities has become widespread in Pakistan. Pakistan has become a hotbed of Islamist politics, in the backdrop of the afghan war, the Kashmir issue, Palestine issue, Iraq war and war on terror after 9/11. A number of militant and extremist organizations were formed. These jihadi outfits have found a fertile ground in the doctrinaire madrassas and youths disenchanted by poverty, unemployment and corruption. Violence against minorities, especially Christians has therefore been on the increase.
Violence against Christians has become an increasing feature of Muslim-Christian relations.

But in addition to the attacks that grab headlines, many Christians in Pakistan say mundane aspects of daily life leave them feeling isolated and neglected.
Had Quaid e Azam lived to the day, he would have said,
“Humanity cries loud against this shameful conduct and the deeds that have been committed. Those who are responsible for this holocaust must be dealt with an iron hand and put down ruthlessly.”
30th October 1947, speech broadcast from radio Pakistan on protection of minorities.

Pakistan’s blasphemy law has also become a tool for the persecution of Christians, Ahmadis and even Muslims in the country. Blasphemy law has caused unrest among all the minorities of Pakistan in general but Ahmadis, who were a Muslim sect till declared non-Muslim by the parliament during the tenure of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, are the worst hit.

Like most laws, the blasphemy law, initially instituted in 1860 by the British to prevent religious riots between Hindus, Muslims and other communities, was not a malicious law, rather its purpose was to strengthen the religious foundations of society by preventing conflict among religious groups and ensuring their integrity and dignity. Its function was to preserve the honor and dignity and status of religious minorities. In a religiously pluralistic situation incidents of insulting religious sensibilities was and still is more on the part of religious majority than the minorities. But Gen. Zia ul Haq expanded the provisions and made the penalties more rigorous including death penalty.

Pakistani law mandates that any “blasphemies” of the Quran are to be met with punishment(s.295 Pakistan Penal Code). On July 28, 1994, Amnesty International urged Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto to change the law because it was being used to terrorize religious minorities . She tried, but was unsuccessful. However, she modified the laws to make them more moderate. Her changes were reversed by the new administration.

In a regular case of blasphemy the police hurriedly register the case to save their neck from the wrath of local imam masjid, the trial court is under immense pressure and is reluctant to counter the accusations and most of the lawyers are unwilling to defend the accused since they can become the target of Muslim fanatics and extremists.
Those accused, who have later been acquitted by the courts have been subject to extra judicial killings or social boycott. Some have been permanently migrated from Pakistan to avoid the shame and oppression following blasphemy accusations.

The European Organization for Pakistani Minorities, on September 16 2016, organized a side event titled “Plight of Pakistani Minorities” at the 33rd session of the UN Human Rights Council. Speaking on the occasion, Fulvio Martusciello highlighted Pakistan’s discriminatory laws against minorities and use of extremist groups as proxies to target minorities including the Christains, Hazaras, Ahmadiyas, Hindus and Balochs. He expressed deep concern regarding the growing intolerance in Pakistani society. Dr Rubina Greenwood, an activist for human rights of the Sindhi community in Pakistan, in her presentation enumerated the various ways in which the religious minorities were being persecuted in Pakistan. Informing that many from the minority communities were fleeing Pakistan to avoid persecution, she stated that as on April 16, 2016, about 11,500 Pakistanis, mostly Christians, were seeking asylum in Thailand.

Another serious deficiency in the present blasphemy laws is that it relates to the religious sensitivities of the Muslims alone. In a multi religious nation such as Pakistan the law should have provisions for slanderous speech, writing and actions against the founders, scriptures or places of worship in other religions which are minority faiths in Pakistan irrespective of their number. Destroying churches and burning Bibles, as recorded numerous times in various events, is a form of blasphemy as well. This is an unaddressed anomaly which has given rise to the feeling that only the religious sensibilities of Muslims are sacred in Pakistan.

Moreover, it has emboldened the fundamentalists and extremists to take the law into their own hands with impunity and take vigilante action and kill even persons exonerated by the courts of blasphemy. This development is a perversion of true purposes of the blasphemy law.

“There is overwhelming evidence that Pakistan’s blasphemy laws violate human rights and encourage people to take the law into their own hands. Once a person is accused, they become ensnared in a system that offers them few protections, presumes them guilty, and fails to safeguard them against people willing to use violence,” said Audrey Gaughran, Amnesty International’s Director of Global Issues.

The report, “As good as dead”: The impact of the blasphemy laws in Pakistan, by Amnesty International shows how people accused of blasphemy face a grueling struggle to establish their innocence. Even if a person is acquitted of the charges against them and released, usually after long delays, they can still face threats to their lives.
Once an accusation of blasphemy is made, the police can arrest the accused, without even checking to see if the charges make sense. Bowing to public pressure from angry crowds, including religious clerics and their supporters, they frequently pass cases on to prosecutors without scrutinizing the evidence. And once someone is charged, they can be denied bail and face lengthy and unfair trials.

The threat of violence follows many people accused of blasphemy, with groups or individuals taking the law into their own hands to threaten or kill the accused and other people associated with them, including their lawyers, members of their families, and members of their own community.
A pall of fear also hangs over those working in Pakistan’s criminal justice system, the report shows, preventing lawyers, police, prosecutors and judges from carrying out their jobs effectively, impartially, and free of fear.

Pakistan’s Supreme Court has acknowledged that the majorities of blasphemy cases are based on false accusations and are driven by ulterior motives. Such motives are rarely scrutinized by the authorities and can vary, from professional rivalry, to personal or religious disputes, to seeking economic gain.

Since the introduction of the more stringent form of the law, blasphemy accusations increased by around 17500 % (source: HRCP). This staggering increase in the number of individuals accused of the offence shows that the law has been used as a tool of persecution and oppression. People did not simply become dramatically more ‘blasphemous’. Rather, these numbers show that the blasphemy law has been understood to be a viable legal means to target groups and individuals, and has been used as such.

The social narrative attached to the perception of blasphemy, and perpetuated by the law, has resulted in an increase in extra-judicial or vigilante killings, by 2750%. There were 2 cases of extra judicial killings from 1946-1987 as compared to 57 cases of Extra judicial killings after the law was passed from 1987-Present.

In 2003 Samuel Masih, a Christian, was arrested for allegedly defiling a mosque by spitting on its wall. While in police custody Masih contracted tuberculosis and was sent to Gulab Devi Chest Hospital for treatment. He was killed by a police officer, Faryad Ali, who was one of the guards escorting him. He used a hammer to kill him in the presence of other officers and claimed that it was his duty as a Muslim to kill Masih.

In September 2006, Shahid Masih was accused of tearing a book which contained Quranic verses. He was beaten by a police officer while in jail and acquitted in 2007 after no evidence was found against him.

In 2010, Asia Bibi, was the first Christian woman arrested and sentenced to death by hanging on a charge of blasphemy. Asia was accused of committing blasphemy after an argument at the farm where she worked. Asia is still in jail and the case has sparked international reactions.

In august 2012, Rimsha Masih, a Christian girl with a learning disability was 14 years old when she was accused of blasphemy by a local cleric who accused her of burning pages of the Qur’an. Despite being a child with a mental disability, she was arrested by the police and charged. After a three-month ordeal in the glare of the media, The Islamabad High Court quashed the charge, noting that she had been falsely implicated without any evidence and that a prosecution would have permitted the courts, themselves, to be used as a tool for ulterior motives. Rimsha Masih and her family fled to Canada, where they were given asylum because of the threats they faced.

In 2014, a Christian couple accused of desecrating the Quran was beaten by a mob, then pushed into a burning brick kiln.

In December 2016, Nabeel Masih was fallaciously accused of posting a picture of khana e Kaaba on facebook which was deemed blasphemous by the complainant.

In January 2017, illiterate Christian Babu Shehzad was accused of allegedly desecrating the Holy Quran and writing his name on the desecrated pages of the Islamic holy book. The respondent, resident of Kamahan village, Lahore was arrested by the police after allegedly committing blasphemy. In this connection an FIR was registered against him, invoking the notorious blasphemy law against him.

Between 1927 (year in which British colonial rulers introduced section 295-A) and 1986 there had been less than ten reported cases of blasphemy. However, 1986 onwards as many as 4,000 cases have been reported. Between 1988 and 2005, Pakistani authorities charged 647 people with offences under the Blasphemy Laws. Fifty percent of the people charged were non-Muslims. More than 20 people have been murdered for alleged blasphemy. Two third of all the cases are in the Punjab Province of Pakistan.

According to 1998 Census, the population of religious minorities, in Pakistan, is around six million or 3.7 percent of the total population. The Hindus and Christians constitute 83 percent of the religious minorities in Pakistan, with Hindus outnumbering Christians by a small margin and 93 percent of Hindus live in Sindh.

An analysis of 361 cases of blasphemy offences registered by the police between 1986 and 2007 shows that as many as 49 percent cases were registered against non-Muslims. The cases against non-Muslims should be contrasted with the population of religious minorities which is not more than four percent of Pakistan’s population.
Between 1980 and 2009, over 960 people have been charged with blasphemy in Pakistan. Of these, 479 were Muslims, 340 Ahmadis, 119 Christians, 14 Hindus, and 10 of miscellaneous faiths.

Moreover, 21 percent cases against Christians are not in line with their ratio in total population, which is 1.58 percent of the total population.

The laws introduced by General Zia-ul Haq, which were discriminatory against women and non-Muslims, were largely opposed by women rights organizations. It is unfortunate that some Christian political leadership continued to adjust their positions and sometimes came to defend these laws publicly.

Factors that paved way for the acceptance of the Blasphemy Laws and their endorsement (by a particular segment of the society) are rooted in the evolution of the state of Pakistan and the constitutional development, in a certain manner. Due to the demographic change that accompanied the partition of India in 1947, the areas that now comprise Pakistan changed from a multi-religious society to a mono-religious society.

Since the 1980s, 32 under-trial prisoners or those acquitted on charges of blasphemy have been “extra-judicially” killed by mobs inside prisons or outside courtrooms.

The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has urged that Pakistan should revoke the draconian blasphemy law. The commission based in Geneva, in its periodic report on Pakistan released on August 26, stated that misuse of blasphemy laws is surging in the heavily Islamic country.

It should not however be imagined that only Christians are the victims of false accusations under the blasphemy law. Dr. Akhtar Hameed Khan, founder of Orange Pilot Project and internationally acclaimed social worker, had three times been accused of Blasphemy, by a disgruntled former employee Mobinud din, who was dismissed for misappropriation of funds. Though Dr. Khan was not convicted, he had been harassed by the police and the army and detained without warrant or charge. He and his family had been subjected to much emotional trauma by a campaign of defaming him by fundamentalist clerics.

Muslim intellectual and religious scholar Javed Ahmed Ghamidi survived murderous attempts on his life and had to leave the country for voicing thought on Quranic interpretations that are viewed blasphemous by the fundamentalists in Pakistan.

Rashid Rehman was a distinguished human rights lawyer, one of the few brave enough to represent people accused of blasphemy in court. On 8 May 2014, Rashid Rehman was shot dead in his office by two unidentified gunmen. The day after his murder, a pamphlet was scattered around lawyers’ chambers in the central Pakistani city of Multan, saying that Rashid Rehman met his fate because he had tried to “save a blasphemer”.

In January 2011, Salman Taseer was assassinated by his bodyguard for voicing his opinion on blasphemy law and supporting Asia Bibi.

Christians form 1.59% of total population and are the most important religious minority of Pakistan. They are as good Pakistanis as muslims and other nationalities are. They are full fledged citizens of the state in the vision of Quaid e azam Muhammad ali jinnah,

“We stand by our declarations that members of every community will be treated as citizens of Pakistan with equal rights and privileges and obligations and that the minorities will be safeguarded and protected,”
Statement replying to various points raised by the deputation of the Scheduled Castes Federation.

The microscopic minorities including Christians of Pakistan rarely dare to give any provocation for any violence and discrimination by monolith majority Muslims. The dilemma for them is how to reconcile with the increasing Islamization. It will need a sea-change in the attitude of the Muslims of Pakistan and a reversal of the rising policy of Islamization of the state to achieve this.

Let us concede that the modification of Blasphemy law stands no chance at all. But there is a need to make far reaching changes in the structure of the law and its application. Safeguards have to be built in so that it cannot be abused and misused and become a tool of oppression and threat to the security and rights of religious minorities in Pakistan, more so than it already has. The Council for Islamic Ideology and the Federal Shariat Court can aid this process by appointing religious scholars of islam as well as by the highest religious body of other faiths like Christians, Hindus, and Sikhs etc. as soon as the complaint of blasphemy is received by the police, the DPO should immediately associate them to determine if the offence has been made out or not. The local police by itself, fearful of local clergy, cannot ensure justice and fair play.