Pakistan: State’s religious and legal contradictions

The Daily Times [Pakistan]
May 30, 2004
Editorial

State’s religious and legal contradictions

The Christian Samuel Masih, accused in a case of blasphemy, who was attacked by a police constable deputed to guard him, has died of his head injury. Earlier, the police arrested the constable who had attacked him and he is in police custody. The killer’s reason was simple: Masih had allegedly blasphemed against the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and it was his (constable’s) duty to kill him for doing so. This is a case that brings out, like nothing else, the myriad contradictions these laws have infused in this state and society.
Until 1979 when General Zia-ul Haq pushed the blasphemy business to the forefront of his Islamic legislation, only six people had been charged under blasphemy and all the cases were laughed out of the courts. Since ‘79 — in 1981 the state stipulated that blasphemy was punishable with mandatory death sentence — there have been hundreds of cases. The lower courts have invariable sentenced the accused, though higher courts have always found the cases mala fide and freed the accused. However, for the accused this has meant spending seven to eight years in jail before the dispensation of justice. The accused are also at great risk during and after the trial. Some have been bumped off in jail and others have had to move out of Pakistan to avoid being killed.
When the government floated the idea of amending the procedure under which someone is accused of blasphemy, the rightwing lobby argued that it was best for people to be in police custody because after being thus charged a person was at risk of being killed by the people if he/she were allowed to remain at large. It was a diabolical argument. But even if it were accepted for the sake of the reasoning, what would the rightwing say now that a constable has chosen to kill an accused?
The fact is that it is a bad law both in its conception and its implementation. Hence it is flawed at both ends. Cases, in which under-trial accused have been killed by the direct or indirect involvement of law enforcement personnel, clearly show that the legislation has created a psyche that encourages vigilante behaviour. This is of course a problem that will always present itself when a state decides to blunder into the area of belief and legislate on the basis of the predominant religion.
The contradiction it sows is clearly visible in the conduct of the constable who, as an officer of the state, was deputed to ensure the safety of the accused. Instead, he chose to kill him. Why? Simply, because his perceived religious obligation overrode his duty as an officer of the law. He thought the law conflicted with his duty as a Muslim. Since he believed this to be a religious state, he felt that it could not have laws that conflicted with the higher aims of the state. His reasoning, flawed as it is, is logical, given the Pakistani state’s own contradictions.
Punjab’s Inspector-General Police says the training schedule so far does not have a consistent component on human and citizens’ rights. The IGP wants to rectify this situation. Wonderful. However, this problem needs to be tackled at both ends of the spectrum. While the IGP is planning to do it at the low end of the spectrum, the state needs to do its own thing at the high end of the spectrum. This would require the state to reverse the retrogressive laws responsible for generating the contradictions that result in such tragedies and present Pakistan as a savage society refusing to heed the logic of pluralism. *

o o o

[Related material]

Blasphemy law case: Samuel faces trial under Section
295 of PPC

* CLAAS files petition against Kot Lakhpat jail
superintendent

By Waqar Gillani and Zainab Khar
Daily Times: May 27, 2004

LAHORE: Samuel Masih, 27, a suspect in a blasphemy
case, who is in critical condition at the Lahore
General Hospital after a police constable hit him on
the head with a brick cutter, has been charged under
Section 295 of the Pakistan Penal Code, which carries
a maximum sentence of up to two years.

According to the first information report lodged
against Samuel, he littered the wall of Darul Islam
Masjid in Lawrence Gardens on August 23 last year.

Chaudhry Muhammad Yaqoob, librarian of the Darul
Islam, who lodged the FIR stated: ìI work as the chief
librarian at Idrae Darul Islam in Jinnah Garden. I was
sitting in the mosque and was reciting the Quran. I
saw a stranger, whose name was later found out to be
Samuel, the son of a man named Emanuel, spitting on
the mosqueís wall where the mosqueís plaque is placed.
I stopped him from doing so. Qari Riffat and Darul
Islamís library assistant Muhammad Aslam also saw
this.î

There are four sections of the PPC, which provide
punishment for a person accused of blasphemy: Sections
295, 295 A, B and C. Section 295 says that the
punishment of a person could be extended to a maximum
of two years or a fine or both if he defiled a place
of worship with the intent of insulting the religion
of any class.

The Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement
(CLAAS), a non-government organisation working for
minority rights, has been pursuing the case since
August 23 last year. The NGO said it was the second
case of its kind in which Section 295 of the PPC was
imposed. Samuel was sent to Kot Lakhpat jail for
trial.

Samuel was suffering from tuberculosis and had to be
admitted to Gulab Devi Hospital on Friday, May 21
after a TB attack in jail. The next morning, Constable
Faryad Ali reportedly attacked him with a brick cutter
in the presence of another guard. ìI wanted to earn a
place in heaven by killing him,î is what constable Ali
is reported to have said. Samuel was subsequently
transferred to Lahore General Hospital.

CLAAS has filed a writ petition in the Lahore High
Court against the Kot Lakhpat jail superintendent and
Dr Sikandar, who were in charge of the emergency ward
when Samuel was admitted after being reportedly hit
over the head by a constable. The NGO has questioned
how the accused was attacked even in police custody.
The court will hear the petition on June 2. Samuel was
still in serious condition under police custody when
this report was filed. The police have barred visitors
and his relatives were reportedly refused permission
to see him on Wednesday. Constable Ali, who attacked
Samuel on May 22, was sent to jail after a case was
registered against him.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistanís fact-finding
team, CLAAS and other NGOs have declared the incident
an example of the misuse of blasphemy law.

ìA third person, who did not know about the case,
assumed Samuel was a blasphemy culprit and attempted
to murder him,î said Joseph Francis, the CLAAS
coordinator. He said the government should revise the
blasphemy law.

Waseem Anthony of the Commission for Peace and Human
Development said the life of citizens was at stake due
to the abuse of blasphemy laws in Pakistan.

Samuelís younger brother Sarwar told Daily Times they
were told about the incident two days later. He said
the whole family was dependant on Samuel. Samuel was
whitewasher, said Sarwar. He said that Samuelís became
mentally unstable after the death of their mother and
he was not in his senses when he left home on August
23. ìThe day when this incident happened, Samuel left
home in anger because he had a fight,î he said.