The case of Aasia Bibi, the Christian woman sentenced to death under Pakistan's 'blasphemy' laws, and the 4 January assassination of Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, who supported her and advocated amendment of these laws, has re-focused attention on this three-decade-old legislation. During those years, a substantial number of victims of these laws have been sent to death row (though no executions have actually taken place) by the lower courts, while many elderly individuals, including women, have also been forced to languish in prison while awaiting related trials or appeals. From half a dozen cases in 1992, the year after the bill's passage, over 4000 individuals currently find themselves accused under these laws.
In another case, a woman, Razia Bibi, was forced to remain in detention without trial for nearly a decade and half. Eventually, an activist who learned of her ordeal moved the Lahore High Court; when the chief justice subsequently ordered her release, he made special note that the case had been an 'affront to humanity'. Such incidents could be drastically minimised if civil-society organisations were accorded access to Pakistani prisons. While Pakistan's representative claimed before the UN Human Rights Council in late 2010 that such access was available, in fact it is only top bureaucrats who are generally allowed to do so. This is a significant problem, given the highly contentious use of this legislation to detain people; only if civil-society organisations have such access can they effectively take up the cases.
As highlighted in the ongoing trial of Aasia Bibi and in the aftermath of the killing of Salman Taseer – in which fundamentalists have offered cash awards for the murder of the former, and vociferous public support has been voiced for the assassination of the latter – Pakistan has been taken hostage by extremists and their patrons (see 'Standing up'). Muslim fanatics today feel empowered by the blasphemy laws, which were imposed by General Zia ul-Haq but were made more stringent during civilian reign; today, they continue to remain untouched by otherwise proactive superior courts. As late as 12 January, a week after Taseer's assassination, Prime Minster Yousuf Raza Gillani stated that there would be no revision to the laws – and his home minister, Rehman Malik, told the media that he would shoot any person who dared to commit blasphemy in front of him.
Blasphemy or enmity?
Even though introduced during Gen Zia's regime, the five amendments to the penal code that constitute the blasphemy legislation have their roots in the so-called Objectives Resolution (as well as in early colonial-era legislation). This was authored by Zia's ideological mentor, Ishtiaq Hussain Qureshi (a member of the cabinet headed by Liaquat Ali Khan, the first prime minister of Pakistan), from his pre-Partition days at St Stephen's College in Delhi. The Objectives Resolution, which made Islam central in the new constitution, was adopted shortly after the death of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, with the specific intent of negating Jinnah's earlier declaration that the elected head of the state would have nothing to do with religion – that issues of faith were personal ones for every citizen.