Source/Credit: Gulf News
By Nasim Zehra | November 22, 2010
The death sentence issued against a Christian woman highlights the need to reform legislation discriminating against minorities
The facts that precede the November 8 death sentence issued against Asia, a Pakistani woman and mother of five, by the Nankana Sahib Sessions Court are appalling.
In June 2008, Asia, a farm worker, fetched water for her fellow farm workers. Many refused the water because Asia was Christian. The situation got ugly.
Reports indicate Asia was harassed because of her religion and the matter turned violent with Asia being targeted. Asia, alone in the hostile environment, naturally would have tried to defend herself. But, as reports indicate, Asia was put in police custody to protect her from the crowd.
However, that move turned into one that was to earn her a death sentence. A case was filed against her under Sections 295 B and C of the Penal Code, with Asia being accused of having made blasphemous comments.
Presently, Asia's family plans to appeal the guilty verdict in the Lahore High Court. Various human rights groups are also likely to be party to the appeal, calling for the repeal of the judgment.
The Asia case yet again raises the fundamental question of how Pakistan's minorities have been left almost unprotected by the government since the passage of the blasphemy law.
It may be true that there may be no hangings on account of the law, but this law has promoted intolerance and populist rage against minorities — and in certain cases, has even led to deaths.
There is also a direct link between the Zia-ist state's promotion of intolerance against minorities and the rise in cases involving the criminal treatment and massacre of Ahmadis.
Cases have ranged from the Kasur case to the more recent Gojra case, from the mind-boggling row of cases (from 1988-92) against the octogenarian development guru Dr Akhtar Hamed Khan to the case of a son of an alleged blasphemer — an illiterate brick kiln worker beaten to death by a frenzied mob.
Although Dr Khan faced prolonged mental torture, he was saved from the maddening rage that has seen many sent to prison.
List of unfair verdicts
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has a well-documented list of unjust sentences handed out to citizens whose fundamental rights are supposed to be protected by the State.
Beyond the unfair treatment, they live in constant fear of being blackmailed by those who may want to settle other scores.
Yet most political parties have refrained from calling for the repeal of the law or an improvement to the way it is implemented.
In the early '90s I asked Nawaz Sharif to criticise the harassment of Dr Khan.
His response was a detailed recall of the story in which the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) went to ask after the health of the non-Muslim woman who repeatedly threw garbage over him.
Sharif condemned what was happening but said politics prevented him from doing it publicly.
Later General Pervez Musharraf reversed his announcement of changes to the law's flawed implementation mechanism after small crowds took part in protests.
Among politicians, there are very few exceptions who have called for the amendment of the law or its repeal and these include Pakistan Peoples Party parliamentarian Sherry Rehman and, more recently, the Awami National Party's Bushra Gohar.
Already, sections of the judiciary have been critical of judgements passed by lower courts in cases of alleged blasphemy.
In July, Lahore High Court Chief Justice Khawaja Sharif threw out charges of blasphemy against 60-year-old Zaibunnisa and ordered her release. She had spent almost 14 years in custody. According to the judgment the "treatment meted out to the woman was an insult to humanity and the government and the civil organisations should be vigilant enough to help such people." Surely the bench should know the plethora of abuses that Pakistan's minorities have suffered because of an evidently flawed law.
A message more appropriate perhaps would be to repeal the law that grossly undermines Constitution of Pakistan and the teachings of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), one of the most tolerant and humane lawgivers humankind has ever known.
This environment of intolerance and populist rage has to be emphatically, practically and collectively challenged.
A collective effort to roll back these laws must come from parliament, lawyers' forums, the judiciary, civil society groups and the media.
Nasim Zehra is a writer on security issues.
Read original post here: Pakistan law is unjust
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for your comments. Any comments irrelevant to the post's subject matter, containing abuses, and/or vulgar language will not be approved.