Sections 295 B and C, 298, A, B and C, commonly known as blasphemy laws, were added gradually to the Pakistan Penal Code, between 1980 and 1986. The first two prescribe life imprisonment and capital sentence for the offenses of offering insult to Holy Quran and Prophet Muhammad, respectively. The remaining sections deal with the offenses of passing insulting remarks, signs in any form against the Wives, companions and family of Prophet Muhammad prescribing punishments from three to ten years of imprisonment and fine. The last Section 298-C prohibits Ahmadis from preaching their religion and ‘posing to be a Muslim’.

The penal law which is mainly inherited from the British period had adequate arrangement to protect the places of worship and other faith related articles and prescribed punishment for disturbing interfaith peace and harmony (Sections 295, and 295, A, 296, 297 and 298 of the Penal Code). However these laws were not religion specific and the punishment was based on the legal supposition that such acts caused provocation and social disturbance.

The dangerous aspect of the approach used in these laws is the concept of ‘honor’ of the holy persons of one religion supposedly to be protected by the state and law in a multi-religious society. Such concepts are prone to vague interpretations in any given society therefore the damage caused by any such act would be more dealt within the Tort rather than criminal law.

Besides the limitation of defining honor, there is inherent problem with the assumption of the laws that people are inclined to offer insult to the holy personage which the law has to stop. Therefore the criterion to ascertain the validity of the allegation is loose. The ‘intention or the motive’, a universally accepted standard of establishing a crime was ignored.

833 persons have been charged in 375 cases under blasphemy laws from 1986-2006.                                                                                                                     NCJP Report

Due to the legal lacunas these laws, commonly known as blasphemy laws have been grossly abused. In the wake of sectarian and denominational differences the Muslim community became the chief victim as far as number of persons accused under the blasphemy charges. 833 persons had been accused in 375 cases under blasphemy laws from 1986 – 2006. About 50 % of these accused were Muslims, 36 % Ahmadis, 11 % Christians and 1% Hindus.

During 2006 at least 87 were added to the list of victim in 45 cases registered. A great majority of the blasphemy allegations, litigation and extra judicial execution took place in Punjab. 71 or the 82% of these individuals belonged to Punjab and rest 17% of the victims to Sindh. In Frontier province only one case was reported whereas in Baluchistan none. As far Punjab the data reflects a constant trend. Therefore it can be safely deduced that Punjab has lead the trend all along in the abuse of concept of blasphemy. Further in the Punjab, the number of victims and cases in the Northern districts of Lahore, Sheikhupura, Sialkot, Gujranwala, and Faisalabad was much greater than other parts of Punjab.

As far as impact of the laws the minorities suffered more losses due to the environment created by the existence of blasphemy laws. In case of non-Muslim accused the trail took several years of pleading and the whole community was targeted. In several incidents their places of worships, properties were burnt and house hold goods looted.

The worst effect of the blasphemy laws was that it instilled a sense of insecurity among non-Muslims in their daily lives. While their interaction as neighbourers, colleagues, fellow passengers, was inevitable a looming ignorance and fanaticism made religion a convenient tool of religious persecution.

Ultimately justice was the first causality and the legal system as threatened by extremist forces was discredited. The evidence became irrelevant in many cases. The Lahore High Court Judge Arif Iqbal Bhatti was killed in 1996 by a fanatic for passing an acquittal judgment for two Christian accused. Lives of dozens of lawyers and activists were threatened as they helped the cases against the blasphemy accused. Blasphemy laws gave rise to lawlessness, 24 persons have been extrajudicially killed since 1990 after they were alleged to have committed blasphemy, 17 of these were Muslims while seven were Christians.

During 2006, 87 persons were charged in 45 cases under blasphemy laws.                                                                                                                  NCJP Report

The civil society in Pakistan offered resistance to these laws right from their inception. In arguments hundreds of articles have been written by law experts and human rights activists since 80s.

The government introduced an amendment in the registration procedure for blasphemy cases in 2004 which stipulated an inquiry by a Superintendent of Police. The move was doomed to fail as it did not touch upon the biased and ambiguous text of the blasphemy laws. In 2006 the abuse of the law continued on even greater scale, over one hundred persons were accused which was a record number of accused in any single year.

Though illogically, Pakistan establishment finds a link between ideology and religion specific laws. This is why state policy is tailored to keep and defend such laws, in spite the huge social cost that society at had to bear. Pakistan spearheaded a resolution on behalf of Organization of Islamic Countries on the defamation of religions (but insisted on resolution on Islamophobia) in the Commission for Human Rights in 2005 dwelling upon the premises of blasphemy laws in Pakistan. After the Cartoon issue gathered momentum in 2006 Pakistan introduced a resolution on the same lines in the UN General Assembly and made lengthy speeches in the Human Rights Council. Pakistan banned screening of the film Da Vinci Code because it was very much in line with the thinking of blasphemy.

The common people of Pakistan are silent on the issue of blasphemy laws, as they are on the many other issues. Despite that manipulations by the so called religious parties are still possible, today the common people are more informed about the scale of abuse and the out come these laws they will not object to repeal of these laws.

The common sense can prevail like it was possible to stop a column for religion in the National Identity Card with massive agitation in 1992, change Friday as a weekly holiday to Sunday in 1997, oppose Shariat Bill in 1998 and its consequential lapse and abolish separate electorate in 2002.

A paradigm shift may not be on the agenda for the Pakistan’s establishment, but it is the need of the common people, who were deprived their rights. The blasphemy laws in Pakistan would be a key question in a paradigm shift. It is to be seen whether it will be a precursor or leaver of the paradigm shift.

The world community is moving in the direction of engaging with Pakistan on human rights issues rather than abandoning it. This needs to be intensified. There is no other way but to understand the nexus between extremism and laws that make it successful.