A Pakistani Christian leader has urged UN General Assembly member states and their representatives in
United Nations Human Right Council to reconsider their stance on “Defamation of
Religion” resolution as he said Pakistan wants to globalize the blasphemy law.
The blasphemy law has been used to target Christians and other minorities in Pakistan and was made part of the Pakistan constitution in 1986 under U.S.-backed Islamist military dictator General Ziaul Haq.
Dr. Nazir Bhatti, publisher of the Pakistan Christian Post and president of the Pakistan Christian Congress, was speaking at an event to mark the Universal Human Rights Day organized by Responsible for Equality and Liberty (REAL) at the National Press Club on Thursday afternoon.
Bhatti said the “Defamation of Religion” resolution, prepared by Egypt and presented by Pakistan on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Conference, would further complicate matters for religious minorities in Islamic countries.
The blasphemy law was originally enacted by the British to maintain sectarian harmony in India.
According to Pakistan's indepdent Pakistan magazine Viewpoint,General Zia ul Haq revised the law in the 1980s to please Islamic parties who supported his illegitimate martial law government.
Most controversial among those laws are Section 295-B and 295-C of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) that were added to the blaphemy law.
"Section 295-B, PPC was introduced in 1982 which is against the insult of Holy Quran and the crime is punishable with life imprisonment. Section 295-C, PPC which was added by an act of parliament in 1986, made it a criminal offence to use derogatory remarks against Holy Prophet (PBUH) and made the crime punishable with death. According to one estimate, over the past 30 years, about 4,000 cases were registered and about 700 of them led to convictions," according to a column in Viewpoint.
http://www.viewpointonline.net/aasias-cry-for-justice.html
Bhatti said the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Universal Human Rights as a member state of United Nations but fails to guarantee equal, basic, democratic rights under to millions of its citizens, specially religious minorities in its territory.
Tracing the constituion history of Pakistan, he said the constitution legislated after independence of Pakistan in 1947,
there was the Objective Resolution as a preamble with a paragraph on religious freedom and equal
rights for minorities. "However, in 1956 and 1962 constitutions of Pakistan the clauses on
protection of minority rights were conveniently scratched," he said.
He said the “Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan” was adopted in 1973, in the absence of
any minority member in the legislative assembly. "Article 2, was added in the constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan,
declaring the country an Islamic state and homeland of Muslims only," Bhatti lamented.
Bhatti said later the 4th amendment in the constitution declared Ahmadi Muslim sect as non-Muslims.
Finally through the 8th amendment all non-Muslims in Pakistan were rendered second class citizens in Pakistan when
through presidential orders of a military dictator.
According to the Religious Freedom Report 2010, issued by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, more than 974 cases have been filed from 1986 to 2009, against individuals of religious minorities under section 295-B and 295-C of Pakistan Penal Code. Under Section 295-C Pakistan Penal Code, any person guilty of defiling the name of Holy
Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was made to suffer life imprisonment or death.
Bhatti recalled in 1991, under the direction of the Federal Shariat Court of Pakistan, section 295-C was further toughened to just death sentence by removing life imprisonment.
Bhatti said concerns were mounting among Christians in Pakistan about the safety of Aasia Bibi, a Christian mother of five, who was sentenced to death on an accusation of blasphemy law on November 8, 2010, in the Punjab province of Pakistan, which is the strongholf of the pakistan military and toughest place for religious minorities.
According to fact finding mission of Pakistan Christian Congress, Aasia Bibi had an argument with her Muslim neighbor woman when her goat enteried their neighbor's home. A week later, when Aasia Bibi was working in a farm with Muslim women, she touched drinking water container, the same neighbor raised objection that the water had become polluted as the tumbler was touched Aasia Bibi, a Christian infidel.
Even today in Pakistan, most Muslims do not eat in the same utensils that are used by Christians or other religious minorities as they consider them "Impure." Interestingly, according to cultural historians the name Pakistan means "land of the pure" is based on religious chauvinism as its aim was to mock the majority Hindus in India as impure by calling Muslims as pure.
According to Bhatti, Aasia Bibi countered that christianity is also a religion of God at which the embittered Muslim woman neighbor screamed that Aasia Bibi has defiled Islam by calling Christianity a religion of God.
As the imam of the mosque began making announcments that Aasia Bibi is blasphemer, her Muslim neighbors dragged her out of her home and tortured her and her children.
Police arrived and took Aasia Bibi to the police station ostensibly to save her life, After two days on June 19, 2009, a
First Information Report (FIR) was lodged against her under Section 295 B and 295-C PPC, on the
complaint of lthe Imam local mosque .
Aasia Bibi is in Sheikhupura Jail now, awaiting for her appeal against death sentence in Lahore High Court.
"The President of Pakistan (Asiaf Ali Zardari) is empowered to pardon any sentence while Home Minister can withdraw any FIR according to constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The clemency appeal was submitted by Aasia Bibi to the President of Pakistan but fundamentalist religious groups and Islamic political parties in Pakistan have launched a campaign against any pardon to a convicted blasphemer," Bhatti said.
He said an Islamic cleric in Peshawar announced reward of half a million Pakistani rupees for any one who wills kills the beleagured woman.
He deplored that Islamic political parties have staged a massive rally in Islamabad and other major cities of Pakistan to pressure the higher courts to put the Christian woman to death.
Bhatti presented a long list of Christians targeted for alleged blasphemy ans said The Islamic extremists are taking law in their hands and murdering Christians falsely accused in blasphemy in broad day light to win heaven for themselves.
On November 18, 2010, Latif Masih aged 22, was shot dead in Punjab after he was granted bail after five months of imprisonment for "blasphemy" for allegedly burning pages of the Quran.
Radical elements gunned downed Pastor Emmanuel and his brother Sajjid in the compound of District Courts Faisalabad, when the two were brought in police escort for hearing in a blasphemy case on July 19, 2010.
On July 30, 2009, hundreds of members of banned Muslim organizations, torched Christian
homes and burned alive seven Christian women and children in Gojra City in Punjab province
of Pakistan. The Muslim mob set on fire hundreds of homes and vandalized Churches in village
Korian Bahminwali in Punjab on charges of blasphemy.
On September 16, 2009, Robert Danish, a Christian youth was killed in Sialkot Central Jail in a security cell as he awaited trial in a blasphemy case.
Moreover, Islamic militants gunned down Justice Arif Iqbal Hussain Bhatti of Lahore High Court on October 19, 1997, in his office for acquitting two people who were accused of blasphemy.
On June 5, 1994, a blasphemy accused Manzoor Masih died on the spot in front of Lahore High Court when Islamic elements attacked him. It is also for record that Bantu Masih, 80, and Mukhtar Masih, 50, were arrested on an allegation of committing blasphemy and stabbed to death at a police station in the city of Lahore.
Tahir Iqbal, who was facing a sentence in a blasphemy case, was killed in Lahore District Jail on July 7, 1991.
"On this Day, Universal Human Right Day, we Pakistani Christian appeal to the U.S. administration to press upon government of Pakistan to repeal controversial blasphemy law which is being used against religious minorities to settle business rivalries and personal petty disputes. We also appeal U.S. administration to condition aid to Pakistan under the Kerry-Lugar Bill with
religious freedom and human rights," Bhatti urged.
http://www.examiner.com/foreign-policy-in-baltimore/thousands-of-muslims-want-christian-woman-jailed-blasphemy-law-intact
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