Who will invest in such a country? Which tourist will come here for sightseeing? Which overseas Pakistani will move back to such darkness and misery? Even the majority of Pakistanis want to run away to a civilized society, if given a chance. Such incidents speak loudly of the abyss that we are living in and a hostile environment where no person feels safe. It is not enough to condemn such mob mentality, but in fact take very strict action, punishable with imprisonment for a long time against those falsely alleging blasphemy. This could be the only deterrent to such incidents in future, and absolutely no leniency should be accorded in these cases to those who level false accusation or take matters into their own hand by becoming judge themselves. The Criminal Laws Amendment Act 2015 states:
- (2) ‘Whoever, commits lynching under subsection 1 shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years with fine or with both in addition to any other punishment to which he may be liable under any other law for the time being in force ...’
The said three years is not harsh enough a punishment for mob lynching, which in fact is a serious offence, threatening a person’s life, and such episodes carry on since perpetrators are eventually set free. The growing trend of mob justice in Pakistan should be cause for serious concern which raises fundamental questions about the rule of law and the state of human rights in the country, discouraging tourism, foreign investments and even education.
Pakistan has an appalling record of the blasphemy law being misused by the Muslim majority. However, the blasphemy law in fact states that insulting any recognized religion is punishable. Any rumour of blasphemy can spark mob violence and there have been cases of people misusing this law to settle personal scores, serve personal agenda or simply persecute minorities. In the last twenty years, Pakistan has had a chequered history of mob justice and vigilante actions which have led to the death of innocent or where people have been denied an opportunity to seek justice for a wrong committed against them. The accused of blasphemy and their representatives do not even get their voice heard in court as the mob takes matters into its own hands and is the judge, jury and executioner of the matter by going to the extent of threatening or killing their counsel, lynching, stoning or setting them on fire.
Asia Noreen, commonly known as Asia Bibi, was accused of blasphemy after an argument with co-workers while harvesting berries. A year later, she became the first woman to be sentenced to death under Pakistan’s Blasphemy Laws, causing international outcry. The death sentence was quashed by the apex court in 2018. The Supreme Court ruling in the Asia Bibi case should have set a precedent for lower courts to dismiss any blasphemy case that has not been proved beyond reasonable doubt. Yet, people’s fate is still decided and death sentences are frequently being passed upon frivolous and baseless evidence, mostly by the mob. On 3rd December 2021, Priyantha Kumara, a 49-year-old, Sri Lankan national, was lynched by a mob of workers at a factory on false allegations of blasphemy. The Anti-Terrorism Court investigated the matter and awarded sentence to six and life imprisonment to nine factory workers. Even though the law had punished those who took an innocent life, the damage to Pakistan’s reputation on global forums was beyond repair and Pakistan is tainted as an unfit place for any economic activity.
The ease of implicating someone under blasphemy has become way too frequent and almost anyone can be scapegoated to serve one’s agenda. Such was again in the case of Junaid Hafeez, a 33-year-old lecturer at Bahauddin Zakariya University after his students accused him of blasphemy on social media in 2014. Since then, Hafeez is in solitary confinement, which has taken a toll on his physical and mental state. Not only this, his defense lawyer was also shot dead shortly after he took upon this case. Junaid still awaits a fair trial and the appeal is pending before the Lahore High Court. The question for the authorities today is, who is to pay for all these years of incarceration should Junaid be declared not guilty? The same was in the case of Asia Bibi, who after spending almost a decade in prison under false blasphemy charges was released thereafter.
The list of false blasphemy charges resulting in ruthless death at hands of mobs doesn’t end here: Mashal Khan, a journalism student, was lynched inside his university campus on blasphemy charges which were spread by students themselves. News of this lynching spread like wildfire as graphic videos of the footage circulated all over social media with religious zealots justifying the attack on the basis of punishing alleged blasphemous behaviour. The fear is so pervasive that no one inside the institute wanted to give any statement over the matter. Such is the image of Pakistan portrayed all over the world - even students and scholars become monsters.
No one is safe. Similar incidents of lynching have surged in India against minorities since BJP won power resulting in worldwide outcry, with Pakistan being one of the countries that criticize it. However, we need to clean our own house. It is very ironic how we as a nation criticize what happens across the border, but have never taken any steps to eliminate such evil within our country at the hands of the mob.
The Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) in a report stated that from 1947 to 2021, 18 women and 71 men were extrajudicially murdered over blasphemy accusations. The allegations were made against 107 women and 1,308 men. Out of the total, 1,287 citizens were accused of committing blasphemy from 2011-21. The number is believed to be much higher as not all cases get reported. There is a dire need to put an end to blatant misuse of blasphemy laws. Owing to the sensitivity of the matter, this issue needs to be dealt by the courts alone and stricter laws need to be implemented to deter the public from taking matters into their own hands or spreading false blasphemy rumours against anyone. It is time for the laws to be amended, and enacted to punish such perpetrators by criminalizing the act of making false and baseless accusations and penalizing perpetrators in a manner so that mob justice is eliminated from our society. This could be the only hope for our hopeless society.