Pakistan: Muslim lawyer slams blasphemy law

“Members of parliament are pressured by radical Islamic groups who threaten street protests and revolts. They fear the loss of consensus because the law has been in force for twenty years and the people think it serves to defend the name of the Prophet”.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source & Credit: CathNewsAsia
Published: July 26, 2010


Pakistan’s blasphemy law and Islamic extremism are disrupting stability, harmony and legality, a local Muslim lawyer says.

Muhammad Aslam Khaki, a Muslim lawyer who is defending clients charged under the blasphemy law, made the comments to Fides the day after the murder of the Emmanuel brothers in Faisalabad.

“We publicly condemn violence. No one may take the law in his own hands: this is the founding pillar of the rule of law,” Aslam Khaki told Fides.


“What is more the two Christians were found to be innocent and had been acquitted by the Court. These events are wounds to legality and to respect for human rights, wounds which Pakistan must heal”.

The “blasphemy law … creates disharmony in society and poses problems particularly for religious minorities.  The law is wrongly used for personal arguments and revenge,” Khaki continued.

“Many innocent citizens spend two or even three years in prison before being acquitted and released. While they are unjustly detained in prison, the families are often subject to threats and violence”.

The law should be abolished, he added, but this “depends on Parliament and I think there is little chance of it happening”.

“Members of parliament are pressured by radical Islamic groups who threaten street protests and revolts,” he said. “They fear the loss of consensus because the law has been in force for twenty years and the people think it serves to defend the name of the Prophet”.

Instead, Khaki proposed an intermediate step.

“The procedure could be modified. As jurists, we ask that a report for blasphemy may only be registered with the consent of an ad hoc Commission which examines the case preventively, evaluates the evidence and decides whether to proceed with formal charging and arrest of the accused persons.”

“This would be a means of guarantee and it would prevent the arrest of persons on false or invented charges”, the lawyer told Fides.



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