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custody and a case registered against them for negligence of duty.
While all this went on, the authorities were little more than spectators.
The government did not make any effort in 2012 to raise awareness among
the people about the abuse of the blasphemy law or why there were demands
for making changes to it. Conservative elements warned the authorities not to
use the Rimsha case to make any changes to the blasphemy law.
At Pakistan’s Universal Periodic Review hearing in 2012, the Adviser on
National Harmony had stated that there was a misunderstanding that the
blasphemy law provision (Section 295-C of the PPC) was used to target only
minorities. He stated that the majority of cases registered under the section
had been against Muslims. He then said that an independent judiciary, free
media and vibrant civil society “also provided an effective safeguard against
any misuse of the blasphemy law”. At the end of 2012 the safeguard supposedly
provided did not seem very effective. An effective safeguard was certain to
elude the Pakistanis in 2013 unless those chosen to govern them took some
interest in righting wrongs that are vital to prevent abuse of this law in the
future.
Freedom of thought, conscience and religion
Recommendations
1. There is an urgent need to take measures in both law and practice to
reach out to members of all minority faiths in Pakistan to reassure them that
the state will facilitate their enjoyment of all rights and will pursue any excesses
against them with complete commitment. Hate speech and violence against
religious minorities must be suppressed by the full might of the state.
2. The pervasive intolerance that is gnawing at the heart of the Pakistani
society has its roots in persistent and shortsighted policies of the 1980s and
’90s. Undoing the damage must be persistent and systematic and should be
emphasised in curriculum and propagated by role models and people that the
youth look up to. The media and the civil society should be partners of the
state in this vital endeavour. Inter-faith harmony should be more than mere
rhetoric reserved for occasions such as Diwali, Christmas, Eids, Moharram or
Holi.
3. An autonomous and accessible commission on religious minorities
must be established at the earliest with jurisdiction to entertain all complaints
of faith-based discrimination.
4. Steps should be taken to increase representation of parliamentarians
from religious minority communities through direct elections. The mainstream
political parties have a significant and thus far negligent role in this respect.
They should remedy that in the coming elections.
5. Abuse of the blasphemy law continues to take a heavy toll in terms of
human lives and harassment of citizens. A well thought out plan should be put
into place to make the citizens aware of the havoc that the abuse of this law
has caused and how important it is to insert safeguards that can prevent that
abuse.