Daily Times: VIEW : Challenging Pakistan’s blasphemy laws takes courage — Nasir Saeed

Shahbaz Bhatti knew death was a risk that came with the role of being the minorities’ minister but he never shirked from criticising the blasphemy laws and calling injustice what it was 

It is very unfortunate that during his recent visit to the UK Paul Bhatti said Pakistan’s blasphemy laws were not a problem. Bhatti is the brother of the late Shahbaz Bhatti, the heroic Pakistani minorities’ minister who was tragically murdered by extremists because he dared to criticise Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. In an address at the House of Commons last week, Bhatti played down the link between the blasphemy laws and the intense persecution of Christians in Pakistan.

For anyone aware of the situation facing minorities in Pakistan, such a position is astonishing. This is because the blasphemy laws have been instrumental in some of the most upsetting examples of injustice against Christians. Take for example Aasia Bibi, a Christian mother of five who is being dragged through a gruelling appeals process to overturn her death sentence for blasphemy, a process which has already gone on over three years and could take many more before any final decision is handed down from the Pakistani courts.

Most recently there was the case of Rimsha Masih, a 14-year-old with a lower mental age who was falsely accused of blasphemy by an imam. Only a few weeks after the case against her made international headlines, it came to light that the imam, her principal accuser, had in fact concocted the evidence himself. The life of a young girl could have been ended because of his lies.

Yet cases like these are not rare. These are simply the most notorious and the ones that gained international attention. There are many more cases of blasphemy against Christians that never get heard of outside Pakistan. Rimsha was extremely lucky because her case went global and drew worldwide condemnation at the political level. Having been given sanctuary in Canada, she and her family are safe for the time being from Pakistan’s unjust laws. But other Christians are not so lucky. Those who remain in Pakistan get up each day and go about their business knowing that at any time they could be subjected to false accusations of blasphemy by disgruntled Muslim neighbours or colleagues who see an easy way of getting one over them. With the law and the authorities on their side, what have they got to lose?

Every Christian in Pakistan is at the risk of a false blasphemy charge and all that it entails: mob justice, hostile courts, indefinite detention without trial, lengthy prison sentences, or a death sentence. Although no one has been executed so far for blasphemy in Pakistan, the appeals process to have the sentence overturned takes years, in which time the accused languishes behind bars, as much at risk of being killed there as they are outside prison. Many Christians accused of blasphemy have been forced to spend years behind bars before their case has even gone to trial. Savan Masih, of Badami Bagh, Lahore, is currently in jail awaiting trial for blasphemy. Another accused, Martha Bibi, has fled to Sri Lanka where she is applying for asylum. Zaffar Bhatti, also accused of blasphemy, has been denied the right of representation in the courts after the Rawalpindi Bar passed a resolution stating that no lawyer would defend him.

More: 

Aljazeera  Video: This year alone, more than 400 people have been killed in similar attacks. Ahmadis, Hindus, and Christians have also been victims of religious intolerance.

In August last year, Rimsha, a young disabled girl, was arrested on charges of desecrating the Quran. She was jailed and the Christian neighbourhood where she lives has been under constant threat of attack.

The country’s controversial blasphemy laws forbid any form of insult to all religions, but in pract ice Vice have been applied only in the case of Muslims feeling aggrieved.

Few politicians have been willing to publicly criticise the country’s blasphemy laws. One who did was Salmaan Taseer, the governor of Punjab. He was subsequently assassinated by his bodyguard in January 2011.

Another politician opposed to the blasphemy laws was Shahbaz Bhatti. For four years he was the only Christian member of the federal cabinet and served as minister for minority affairs. He was gunned down in March 2011. No one has yet been found guilty.

Shahbaz’s brother Paul, also a Christian, returned to Pakistan from Italy and  took up his mantle as minister. But Paul Bhatti was replaced as minister of religious affairs in the new government – by Sardar Muhammad Yousaf, who is a Muslim.

Talk to Al Jazeera sat down with the former minister for national harmony and minority affairs in Pakistan, Paul Bhatti, to discuss religious divisions in today’s Pakistan, issues facing religious minorities, and the impact of the country’s blasphemy laws.

http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1&isUI=1