Tahir Naseem: another victim of draconian blasphemy law!

Violence in the name of religion has become the identity of Pakistan. Even today there are such primitive laws where murder is justified in the name of religion. One such law is blasphemy law. And it has recently known one again. A person named Tahir Ahmad Naseem accused of blasphemy for claiming that he was a prophet has been shot dead in a courtroom in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar. Naseem was shot six times during a hearing in his case at a district court. Naseem had been in police custody since 2018 when he was accused of having committed blasphemy by claiming to be a prophet - a violation of Pakistan's strict blasphemy laws that can carry the death penalty for certain offences. Soon after the killing of Naseem, a video of the killer was widely shared on social media. It showed him sitting on a courtroom bench while being held by police officers, and he is heard saying the Prophet Muhammad told him in a dream to kill Mr. Naseem. Thousands of Muslims participated in a rally held at Peshawar in support of killer. At the rally, the demonstrators praised Khan for the killing Naseem, calling for his immediate release from jail and saying he killed Naseem because the government was too slow in prosecuting blasphemy cases.

Under the Pakistan penal code, the offense of blasphemy is punishable by death or life imprisonment. Widely criticized by international human rights groups, the law has been used disproportionately against minority religious groups in the country and to go after journalists critical of the Pakistani religious establishment. The offences relating to religion were first codified by Colonial India's British rulers in 1860 and were expanded in 1927. Pakistan inherited these laws when it came into existence after the partition of India in 1947. During the reign of General Zia in the 1980s Islamic influence in Pakistan grew, the law was expanded to include making derogatory remarks against Islamic personages an offense. Since 1987, a total of 633 Muslims, 494 Ahmedis, 187 Christians, and 21 Hindus have been accused under various clauses of the blasphemy law, according to the National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP).

Some Pakistani politicians have made efforts to amend the blasphemy laws. In 2010, Sherry Reman of Pakistan's People's Party (PPP) introduced a private bill with the intention of changing procedures of religious offences so that cases would be heard directly by the higher courts. The bill was withdrawn in 2011 following pressure from religious forces and some political opposition groups.

In 2011, senior politician and governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer was shot dead by his own bodyguard for voicing support for Asia Bibi and condemning the country's stringent blasphemy laws. His killer, Mumtaz Qadri, immediately surrendered to police and was later executed, becoming a martyr for many hardline Islamists.

At his funeral in 2016, thousands converged on the northern city of Rawalpindi as the Pakistani media was blacked out to prevent riots. Leaders of prominent Islamist political parties attended the funeral as supporters of Qadri carried signs in celebration of his "bravery." Qadri's grave, in the capital city of Islamabad, has since become a shrine for those supporting Asia Bibi's death sentence. Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan's minister for minorities and a Christian leader, was also killed in 2011 after he demanded justice in blasphemy related cases.

As the rights organisation claims that the Blasphemy law is used to pursue vendettas and justify vigilante violence. On the basis of little or no evidence, the accused will struggle to establish their innocence while angry and violent mobs seek to intimidate the police, witnesses, prosecutors, lawyers, and judges. Critics say the fact that minorities figure so prominently in the cases shows how the laws are unfairly applied. Often the laws are used to settle personal scores and have little or nothing to do with religion. A large majority of Pakistani people support the idea that blasphemers should be punished, but there is little understanding of what the religious scripture says as opposed to how the modern-day law is codified.

In 2018, Pakistan's Supreme Court passed a landmark verdict in the country's most high-profile blasphemy case, acquitting Christian woman Aasia Bibi after she had spent nine years on death row. The move angered the country's far-right religious parties, leading to widespread protests led by firebrand cleric Khadim Hussain Rizvi's Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) party, which has frequently advocated for violence against those accused of blasphemy. This shows that the society of Pakistan is still mind-bogglingly barbarian and the clad of civilization is merely a mantle.