Hotline Asia Urgent Appeals -- UA000525(8)

Action Requested || Sample Letter || Background
Update

Summary

Rashid Masih and Saleem Masih two Christian brothers were accused of having said derogatory words about the Prophet Muhammad during a dispute with a street vendor. On May 12, each of them was sentence to 35 years imprisonment and fined Rs.75000 (US $1500) on the charge of 'offering insult to Prophet Muhammad and Holy Quran'. Recently, on May 2 2000, in another case Ashiq Masih (not related to Rashid or Saleem and also known as Kinghari) has been charged with 'offering insult to Holy Prophet Muhammad'. He is under arrest and awaiting trial.

In October 1990, Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) was amended. Under the law change, the offense of blasphemy, including speaking or writing against Prophet Mohammed or Islam, 'shall be punished with the death sentence or imprisonment for life and shall be liable to fine.' Human rights groups have long demanded that Section 295-C of the PPC (or the "Blasphemy Laws") be repealed because it is often used against religious minorities or in personal vendettas and land disputes. There is a call for the international community to express their concern on the unjust effect of the "Blasphemy Laws" and especially to call for justice for the recent victims.

Please write polite letters expressing your deep concern and requesting the government:

1. to re-try the case against Rashid Masih and Saleem Masih in a fair and open court, and guarantee that they will be free from any ill-treatment while in prison;

2. to speed up the process for a fair and open trial for Ashiq Masih alias Kinghari;

3. to re-examine the effect of Sections 295-B & C and 298-B & C of the Pakistan Penal Code (see below for more information) against religious minorities in Pakistan and consider repealing these laws.

Sample Letter

Background

The law on blasphemy had existed since 1927.  However, before the last decade, rarely had anyone heard of the law ever being used.  Ever since the vague and arbitrary definition of blasphemy was inserted into the Pakistan Penal Code in the 1980's and punishment increased from two years imprisonment to the death sentence, the incidents of alleged blasphemy have suddenly risen.  The victims are both religious minorities and Muslims.

In April 1998, a victim of the "Blasphemy Laws" was sentenced to death amid several calls were made to re-try the case in a fair and open court (UA980505-3).   The following month, Bishop John Joseph (66), Catholic Bishop of Faisalabad, committed suicide in the corridors of a Sessions Court in Sahiwal (700 km from the capital Islamabad) in protest against the injustice created by the "Blasphemy Laws" (Hotline UA Supplements No 1, 1998).  That incident raised international awareness of the problem. In 1998-1999, however, more than 70 cases of blasphemy (victims being both religious minorities and Muslims) were recorded by local press and human rights organisations.   They were mainly charged under Sections 295-B, 295-C and 298-B & C of the Pakistan Penal code (PPC):

Section 295-B  -  Defiling etc., of Holy Quran; whoever willfully defiles, damages or desecrates a copy of the Holy Quran or of an extract therefrom or uses it in any derogatory manner or for any unlawful purpose shall be punishable with imprisonment for life.

Section 295-C  -  "Use of derogatory remarks in respect of the Holy Prophet, whoever by the words, either spoken or written,  or by visible representation, or by any imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, directly or indirectly, defiles the sacred name of the Holy Prophet Muhammad shall be punished with the death sentence or imprisonment for life and shall be liable to fine". The condition for imprisonment for life came to an end in 1990, and the death sentence was made mandatory for blaspheming the name of the Holy Prophet.

Sections 298-B & C  -  In 1984, legislation was passed as section 298-B & C which makes it a criminal offences for Ahmadis (a religious minority) to call themselves Muslims, to employ nomenclature appellation associated with Islam, to use Muslim practices of worship and to propagate their worship. " Persons who call themselves Ahmadis or any other name ... in manner whatsoever outrages the religious feelings of Muslims, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years or with fine or with both.

The Recent Cases:  In June 1999, Rashid Masih and his brother Saleem Masih were arrested under Section 295-C of the PPC.  The complainant, Maqsood Ahmed - a street vendor, had a scuffle with them, as he did not allow the two non-Muslims to use his utensils.  The complainant first charged them of destroying his merchandise (ice cream) and snatching Rs.1000 (US$20). The two brothers were arrested but set free after a compromise was struck.  Two days later, Maqsood Ahmed filed another complaint against them under Section 295-C.  The police, in order to ensure the arrest of the two brothers, took their sisters and her infant child into custody.  Both the brothers were arrested in the first week of June 1999 and have been in prison since.

On 2 May 2000, Faisalabad police registered a case against Ashiq Masih (alias Kinghari) on charges of 'offering insult to Prophet Muhammad'. His brother informed that Ashiq had converted to Islam three years ago and Rana Nisar Ahmed, the complainant of this case, had a brawl with the accused on 17 March 2000, because Ahmed did not want Ashiq to meet his Christian relatives.  Six weeks after the incident he registered the case of blasphemy.

Recent Effort to Change the Blasphemy Laws:  On 21 April 2000, during a human rights convention sponsored by the military government ruler General Pervez Musharraf, who came to power after the 1999 October's coup, promised to 'end abuses of the controversial Blasphemy Laws'.   It was intended that the law would be changed in order to make the process more official and harder to abuse.  Under the law change, anyone with a blasphemy grievance had to register a complaint, called a first information report, with the area administrator or district commissioner, instead of with the local police chief.  A month later, it was reported that the General withdrew a key change to the controversial Blasphemy Laws to appease Islamic religious parties.

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