ISLAMABAD: The upholding this week of death sentence awarded to a Christian woman Asia Bibi on blasphemy charges way back in 2009 has brought the blasphemy laws back to the light again in Pakistan.
General Ziaul Haq was the architect of Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), which was added in 1986, mandating capital punishment for the ‘use of derogatory remarks in respect of the Holy Prophet’.
Even the law minister at the time did not support the bill when it was introduced in the National Assembly of Pakistan on the ground that the Quran did not fix a penalty for this offence.
The law, which technically serves to protect all religions from blasphemy, is mostly invoked only by the majority against the minority.
The growing consensus on a review of the controversial laws had prompted some members of the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) to recommend last year death penalty to those also who make false accusations of blasphemy.
But the proposal was killed during the CII meeting on September 19, 2013.
Asia, a 49-year-old mother of five, insists that she was falsely accused of committing blasphemy after she refused to convert to Islam.
Asia’s sentence had provoked an international outcry, including pleas for her release by the Pope. INTERNEWS
