President calls again for review of blasphemy laws; Christians wait for "facts"
Lahore (AsiaNews/Ucan) - Cautious hope as well as condemnation have greeted Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf's May 15th call for a review of the country's Islamic criminal law and laws on blasphemy.
Musharraf said the blasphemy laws, which imposes the death penalty for anyone convicted of blaspheming Mohammad or the Koran, should be scrutinized so that they are not misused to victimize the innocent. Minority groups and NGOs claim some people misuse these laws and their wide definition of defamation to settle personal grudges.
The president's comments came during a convention in Islamabad on "Sensitization and Adoption of Human Rights Standards in Pakistan," at which media said he announced the formation of an independent National Commission for Human Rights to facilitate the implementation of human rights standards. He has also called for a specific law against "honor killings," a traditional practice through which people-mostly women- accused of illicit sexual relations are killed, often by members of their family, to "restore" the family's honor.
In a press release May 18, Archbishop Lawrence Saldanha of Lahore said, "As president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Pakistan, I hearthily welcome President Pervez Musharraf's bold call to review the Hudood Ordinance and the Blasphemy Law. This has been a long-standing demand of human rights organizations." He added, "We hope and pray that the president will resolutely move forward and eliminate this long-standing anomaly in our legal system."
Peter Jacob, executive secretary of the Catholic bishops' National Commission for Justice and Peace, commented, "We fully support this announcement, but we have to see the result. The president talked previously about misuse of the blasphemy laws, "but no serious steps were taken," Jacob explained.
Mahboob Sada, director of Christian Study Centre in Rawalpindi, next to Islamabad, said he hopes "the government will take the matter of blasphemy laws seriously."
Ejaz Ghauri, President of the Christian Progressive Movement said, "We warmly welcome the statement of President Musharraf. It's a bold and appreciable step by the government." Yet Ghauri criticized the government as well. "We are surprised and shocked that Mr. President didn't pay attention to the brutal killing of a Christian youth, Javed Anjum. We strongly condemn this barbaric killing and protest that the involved persons should be caught and punished according to the law as soon as possible." Anjum was a 19 year old Christian boy who was tortured to death at the hands of Islamic radicals who were tried to force the boy's conversion.
Yet Maulana Fazal ur Rehman, general secretary of Muttahida Majilis-e-Amal Pakistan (MMA), an alliance of six Islamic parties, told the press in Islamabad that the alliance will not allow the government to make any changes in the Hudood Ordinance or blasphemy laws. The MMA won the third-highest number of legislative seats in the 2002 election. According to the Urdu-language daily "Khabran" in Multan, Rehman said all Islamic religious schools of thought are united on Islamic laws, "so we will defend these laws strongly."
According to Archbishop Saldanha: "What is crucially needed is a tolerant society and an end to discrimination against a large and important section of the population, namely, women. At the same time there is need to put an end to laws that discriminate against the minorities."
Several Christians have been convicted under the blasphemy laws.
Most Rev. Dr. John Joseph, 66, Catholic bishop of Faisalabad and a high profile human rights activist, shot himself dead in May of 1998 in protest against the death sentence given to a Christian of his diocese, Ayub Masih, for blaspheming Islam.
Christians form less than 2 percent of Pakistan's 147 million people, about 95 percent of whom are Muslims.
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01/06/2004
