ASIA/PAKISTAN – Changes to the blasphemy law: the government's bill, Christians approve

Wednesday, 27 May 2015

Lahore (Agenzia Fides) - The government of Pakistan is moving to stop the abuse of the blasphemy law: the executive has in fact developed a bill that will be presented and discussed in Parliament for approval.
"It is a major step forward", says to Agenzia Fides Fr. Saleh Diego, president of the "Justice and Peace" Commission and Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Karachi.
"We hope and we will see how the debate goes in Parliament. We know that several parties are favorable of stopping the abuse of the blasphemy law. But extremist parties are still very strong". The President of the Commission recalls: "As a Church and as a Christian community in Pakistan, we have been asking to implement mechanisms to stop the abuses for years. We lived and dealt with serious cases in which this law was exploited. It is a matter of justice, as there are many innocent people in prison. Avoiding abuse would be a benefit to society as a whole, for the citizens of all religions, Muslims and Christians, accused unjustly". According to the priest, "the pressures of the international community can be helpful".
As Fides learns, the proposal prepared by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, controlled by the Ministry of Justice, is intended to discourage the instrumental use of the law and false accusations, introducing severe penalties for those who formulate false accusations of blasphemy. The bill would amend the procedural shortcomings, introducing new clauses in the protocol to be followed in cases of alleged blasphemy, with the aim of ensuring that no one "does justice alone" but state institutions (police and the judiciary) have to punish the guilty.
Among the changes, the new procedure would make it necessary to show the "mens rea" (bad faith and intent) behind an act of blasphemy, a condition which is currently not present. This would mean that a condition for being accused is the precise intention of committing the crime. A fact also considered necessary in the judgment of the Federal Court of Sharia of 1990.
In a recent report, the NGO "Human Rights Commission of Pakistan", points out that the abuse of the blasphemy law continues to cause oppression and harassment of innocent citizens. 14 Pakistani citizens are on death row, while another 19 are serving a life sentence on charges of committing blasphemy. The number of cases registered in the last 25 years (over a thousand) suggests that the law has been widely abused, often for personal vendettas. According to a report by the Center for Research and Studies on Security, based in Islamabad, since 1990, 52 people accused of blasphemy have been victims of extrajudicial executions. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 27/05/2015)


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