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India-Pakistan
Pakistani Lawmakers Demand Stricter Anti-Blasphemy Laws
2020-01-02
[TimesofIndia] ISLAMABAD: Pakistani provincial lawmakers have unanimously passed a resolution asking the central government to make new or improve existing laws to sternly punish blasphemers and recommended setting up of a Saudi Arabia like central screening or filtration system to intercept sacrilegious material on social media.

The resolution was passed by Punjab's provincial assembly on Tuesday. The lawmakers asked for strict implementation of existing anti-blasphemy laws and asked the federal government to formulate more laws to pave the way for taking stern action against people who commit blasphemy.

According to the resolution, the existing anti-blasphemy laws in the country were not being enforced in letter and spirit, allowing some people to commit blasphemy in the garb of freedom of expression.
Oh noze !
It said blasphemous content was available on social media and also in the international print and electronic media. Some importers too were importing books containing such material, hurting the feelings of Muslims.

"Therefore, this house demands the immediate establishment of a Saudi Arabia like central filtration and screening system to prevent blasphemous content. Laws should immediately be made to prevent printing and sale of local or foreign religious books without the certification of Muthidda Ulema Board (a body of clerics) and the federal religious affairs ministry, also disallowing presentation of such material in regular and social media," the resolution stated. "The books containing blasphemous material should immediately be confiscated and their import be disallowed," it added.

Blasphemy is a hugely sensitive subject in Pakistan, with even unproven allegations often prompting mob violence. Anyone convicted, or even just accused, of insulting Islam, risks a violent and bloody death at the hands of vigilantes.

Rights groups said the blasphemy laws are routinely abused to seek vengeance and settle personal scores, primarily property-related disputes. In 2017, a mob had beaten up a student, Mashal Khan, to death at a university campus in Pakistan’s northwest after accusing him of blasphemy over social media.

Last year, the Supreme Court acquitted Aasia Bibi, a Christian woman earlier sentenced to death on blasphemy charges, after accepting her appeal against her sentence. Despite the court's order in her favour, she could not stay in Pakistan due to threats to her life from religious zealots. Rights activists and independent observers have long been speaking out against blasphemy laws and its misuse, but Pakistani authorities, realizing the gravity of the situation, cannot consider abolishing or amending it. A mere suggestion for softening the blasphemy law can threaten lives of its critics. Prominent leaders, including former Punjab's governor Salman Taseer and ex-federal minister for minorities Shahbaz Bhatti, were gunned down during broad daylight in Islamabad for merely suggesting amendment in the blasphemy law to stop its abuse and misuse.
Related:
Anti-blasphemy law: 2016-03-26 Hefazat, Jamaat protest state religion hearing
Anti-blasphemy law: 2014-05-06 Shafi: Awami Leaguers are always with us
Anti-blasphemy law: 2012-09-28 'Halt Nato supplies' mantra revived
Link


India-Pakistan
Aasia’s departure
2019-05-10
[DAWN] FINALLY, a shameful chapter in this country’s history has drawn to a close. It emerged on Wednesday that Aasia Bibi ‐ in protective custody at an unknown location since being acquitted of blasphemy by the Supreme Court last year ‐ has left Pakistain for Canada, which has offered her asylum along with her family. She had spent eight years in prison for a crime she did not commit. The case, which burst into public view in 2009, catapulted one among millions of anonymous farmhands toiling on fields across the country into an enduring object of hate for the ultra right. The ripples extended well beyond the immediate circumstances: the liquidation in January 2011 of then Punjab
1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots....
governor Salmaan Taseer at the hands of his own police guard was a direct consequence. Six months later, minister for minorities Shahbaz Bhatti who, like Taseer, had expressed support for Aasia Bibi and demanded changes to the blasphemy law to prevent its abuse, was also bumped off. Mercifully though, unlike the acquittal that sparked rioting in various parts of the country, her departure for foreign shores played out quietly.

Aasia Bibi’s ordeal took on a heightened significance from the outset. This was perhaps because there was a woman at the centre of it, that too a Christian woman ‐ in a patriarchal society where the minorities are already vulnerable to discrimination, even persecution. Pressure from around the world also meant that the Pak government had a stake in at least ensuring Aasia Bibi’s physical safety during her years of incarceration, even as the trial process dragged on. However,
a clean conscience makes a soft pillow...
 there are many forgotten blasphemy accused whose cases have faded from public memory; the demand for their fair treatment comes only from their hapless families. Take Junaid Hafeez, for example. Mr Hafeez was a visiting faculty member at a leading Multan
Home of the Multan Sultans...
 university when he was accused of committing blasphemy by some students and placed in durance vile
You have the right to remain silent...
 in March 2013. His case illustrates the extent to which the cancer of extremism has spread in this society. Rashid Rehman, the lawyer defending Mr Hafeez, was threatened by no less than some of his fellow advocates who evidently believed there are exceptions to the fundamental right of due process. On May 7, 2014, Mr Rehman was rubbed out in his office; his murder remains unsolved. The Pak state must not continue to abjure its duty to those victimised by the blasphemy law.

Link


India-Pakistan
Pakistan spares Christian woman from death sentence over blasphemy charges
2018-11-01
Sometimes the innocent are succored despite the efforts of the evil ones.
[NYPOST] Pakistain’s Supreme Court on Wednesday freed a Christian woman from a death sentence for blasphemy against Islam and overturned her conviction, sparking angry protests and death threats from an ultra-religious party and cheers from human rights
...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless...
 advocates.

Asia Bibi, a mother of four, had been living on death row since 2010, when she became the first woman to be sentenced to death by hanging under Pakistain’s draconian blasphemy laws, which critics say are too harsh and often misused.

She was condemned for allegedly making derogatory remarks about Islam after neighbors objected to her drinking water from their glass because she was not Moslem.

Bibi has always denied blasphemy.

The case outraged Christians worldwide and has been a source of division within Pakistain, where two politicians who sought to help Bibi were assassinated.

Chief Justice Saqib Nasir, who headed a special three-person bench set up for the appeal, cited the Koran in his ruling, writing that "Tolerance is the basic principle of Islam" and noting the religion condemns injustice and oppression.

DEATH THREATS
Supporters of Islamist political party Tehrik-e-Labaik (TLP), which was founded to support blasphemy laws, immediately condemned the ruling and blocked roads in major cities, pelting police with stones in the eastern city of Lahore.

The TLP’s leadership called for the death of Nasif, the chief justice, and two other judges on the panel.

"The patron in chief of TLP, Muhammad Afzal Qadri, has issued the edict that says the chief justice and all those who ordered the release of Asia deserve death," said party front man Ejaz Ashrafi.

The party also called for the ouster of the government of new Prime Minister Imran Khan
... aka Taliban Khan, who is the lightweight's lightweight...
The TLP was founded out of a movement supporting a bodyguard who assassinated Lahore provincial governor Salman Taseer for advocating for Bibi in 2011. Federal minister for minorities Shahbaz Bhatti was also killed after calling for her release.

Bibi’s lawyer on Wednesday called the court ruling "great news" for Pakistain.

"Asia Bibi has finally been served justice," lawyer Saiful Mulook told Rooters. "Pakistain’s Supreme Court must be appreciated that it upheld the law of the land and didn’t succumb to any pressure."

Street protests and blockades of major roads were spreading by mid-afternoon, paralyzing parts of Islamabad, Lahore and other cities. Some schools in Islamabad sent students home early and long lines of cars formed at fuel stations as residents worried about prolonged protests.

Link


India-Pakistan
Bombs targeting Christians is extremism, but our everyday bigotry isn't?
2016-04-02
[DAWN] Words ought to fail us. But we can't afford the luxury of that failure anymore than we can afford the luxury of all the other potential failures staring us in the face as this phase of the 21st century performs a fractured, farcical, obscene repeat of the third decade of the twentieth.


People point out that more Muslims died than Christians. Is this consolation or schadenfreude? In any case, what do we with that fact? To what end does one point this out if one is a Muslim? Are we addressing the jihadis?
Bombs. Suicide attacks. Drones. Bodies of Baloch youth turning up tortured and destroyed on roadsides. Death is the norm as alliances implode. America, Pakistain and Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
 bicker like graceless divorcees who don't know how to move on.

You might call the jihadis children of this marriage, but in this custody battle, everyone fights to give away the children who, in turn, are determined to eat their parents.

Vitriol against Muslims and Mexicans sweeps America, internment camps, repatriation, walls, bans on travel.

Amidst declining oil prices and more disasters to come, the Saudis crush dissidence and abduct their own princes in luxury airplanes: rendition for the oil rich.

Pakistain reaps the brutal, devastating benefits of years of state policy, grandly bankrolled by the US and Saudi Arabia.

And no. Not just the cultivation of the jihadis in the service of delusions of regional grandeur and "strategic depth," all other kinds managing to elude our "leaders."

I write of the quieter, cumulative bigotries we have nourished, through indifference, silence and outright cultivation.

Non-existent schools (although they do exist on paper), deliberate and systematic attempts at de-vernacularising progressive thought, a state intent on being in a permanent counter-insurgency relation with all its citizens (although, of course, the Baloch are especially loved in this regard).

A state refusing to address the condition of minorities from its very inception.

J.N. Mandal saw the signs and left. Minorities howled about the anti-minoritarian tendencies already manifest at the earliest constituent assemblies, only of course to be ignored.

The Munir report released and well...ignored. Constitutional amendments against Ahmadis under "secular" leadership that enshrined discrimination, formalising the bigotry of events like the attack on Rabwah put into place. Shias assassinated in Punjab
1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots....
in the eighties.

Christians rigorously persecuted at the same time. Bishop John Joseph did away with himself to protest the persecution of Christians -- did we notice?

The bigoted application of the "blasphemy" law, the attempted indigenisation of Chapter 15 of the Indian (subsequently Pakistain) Penal Code of 1860/62 normalised.

People talk about extremism taking over. But let's be clear: extreme is a relative term, a measure of degree.

"Extreme" -- so not the centre, or ordinary, or usual. What does it mean to talk about extremism when brutality has become the norm?

If bombs aimed at Christians are Death Eater, is the circulation of terms like chura and achut ordinary, usual, "moderate"?

We miss being a part of India so much we decided to hang on to the idiom of caste bigotry just to feel at home.

And now Lahore was attacked and there seems surprise. One should ask: Why?

What tacit understanding led us to believe it could be protected as each other part of the country and every segment of its population slowly burned. Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
 burned in the eighties and nineties but Lahore was safe. Balochistan
...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
 burned but Lahore was safe.

And, and, and...was it really? Should we be pleased that we can still be surprised or horrified that this is the surprise we can muster?

The viciousness is aimed at Christians this time.

People point out that more Muslims died than Christians. Is this consolation or schadenfreude? In any case, what do we with that fact? To what end does one point this out if one is a Muslim? Are we addressing the jihadis?

As in: you killed the wrong people. Is that an implicit acknowledgement that killing the right people is well...right? I don't think that's what people mean when they point out the attack killed more Muslims than Christians. It does, however, seem a symptom of a profound moral aphasia.

Out of which side of our mouth do we speak when we do point it out? What does it mean that this was an attack on Christians at Easter and the Muslims were just collateral damage?

Let's try to be precise in our grief and rage and list some names: Bishop John Joseph, Shantinagar, Manzoor Masih, Ayub Masih, Gojra, Rimsha Masih, Aasia Bibi, the twin church blasts in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
, Shahbaz Bhatti and...memorise this list. Expand it. Write an unconsoling history.

Now add the names of the dead of Lahore. All of them. And mourn, all of us, together.
Link


India-Pakistan
Taseer's killer Mumtaz Qadri hanged
2016-03-01
[DAWN] Mumtaz Qadri, an Elite Force commando convicted of killing former Punjab
1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots....
governor Salman Taseer, was executed at the Adiala Jail at around 4.30am on Monday, police said.

Qadri shot Taseer 28 times in broad daylight in Islamabad’s Kohsar Market on January 4, 2011. He was sentenced to death for assassinating Taseer on Oct 1 the same year.

Qadri said he killed Taseer over what he called the politician's vocal opposition to blasphemy laws of the country.

His mercy appeal was rejected by President Mamnoon Hussain.

"I can confirm that Qadri was hanged in Adialia jail early Monday morning," senior local police official Sajjid Gondal told AFP.

A prison official confirmed the execution of Qadri.

Cries were heard from inside Qadri's house as hundreds of men and women gathered, and mosques could be heard broadcasting news of the execution, an AFP news hound there said.

"I have no regrets," Qadri's brother Malik Abid told AFP, tears rolling down his cheeks.

He said the family had been called to the prison Sunday evening by officials who said Qadri was unwell.

But when they arrived, he greeted them with the news that authorities had deceived them, and that his execution was imminent.

"We started crying, but he hugged us," Abid said.

Two weeks after Taseer was killed, the only Christian minister in the federal cabinet, Shahbaz Bhatti, was bumped off in Islamabad. He too was a critic of the blasphemy laws.

In August 2011, Taseer's son was kidnapped from his car in Lahore. Shahbaz Taseer’s wherabouts remain untraced.
Link


India-Pakistan
Without undue delay
2015-08-15
[DAWN] ON July 22, the Supreme Court admitted Aasia Bibi's appeal against her conviction and death sentence for blasphemy under Section 295-C of the Pakistain Penal Code. The court's decision to hear the case is welcome; even more welcome would be a hearing, scheduled as soon as possible.

Even if the SC now goes on to acquit Aasia Bibi, she has already spent six years (and counting) in prison (four years on death row); Salmaan Taseer and Shahbaz Bhatti have bit the dust for advocating for her release; and her family has been subjected to continuous threats and harassment, only because of their relationship with someone accused of blasphemy.

This is the truth of how the blasphemy law operates in Pakistain: the accused have to suffer prolonged periods of pretrial detention as they wait for their case to be heard, which in some instances is followed by years in death row cells before their appeals are decided. Delays in trial are common for a variety of offences across the criminal justice system; however, since blasphemy allegations come with a very real danger of extrajudicial killings and attacks in and outside of prison, the anguish of blasphemy accused is further enhanced because of the fear for their lives and their family's safety. Additionally, since more than 95pc of blasphemy accused are eventually acquitted, the prolonged periods of detention mean innocent people are deprived of their liberty for many years.
Link


India-Pakistan
SC stays execution to hear Aasia's appeal
2015-07-24
[DAWN] LAHORE: A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court has suspended till further orders the carrying out of death penalty awarded to Aasia Bibi in a blasphemy case that had drawn a lot of criticism at the national and international levels.

The bench also condoned on Wednesday an 11-day delay in filing appeal against an order of a Lahore High Court division bench that had upheld the Christian woman’s sentence.

Advocate Saiful Malook informed the Supreme Court bench that delayed issuance of attested copies of the orders of the trial and high courts had caused a delay of a few days in filing the appeal. He said the court had the power to condone a minor delay in filing appeals against death penalties.

Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, head of the bench, condoned the delay and overruled the registrar office’s objection to the appeal.

Admitting the appeal for hearing, the bench halted the execution of the woman and asked the prosecution to present complete record of witnesses in the case.

It linked the execution to final decision on the appeal and adjourned hearing for a date to be fixed by the registrar’s office.

Justice Nisar said a careful examination of the case record was critical for complete justice.

Talking to reporters, the counsel for the convict termed the stay order a breakthrough in the case and expressed the hope that his client would be acquitted.

He said grave lacunas in the trial and prosecution’s version would favour the convict.

Asia Bibi, a 50-year-old mother of five, has been languishing in jail since June 19, 2009, when her neighbours in a village near Nankana Sahib accused her of blasphemy. An additional district and sessions judge sentenced her to death in November 2010. An LHC division bench dismissed her appeal on Oct 16 last year and upheld the sentence.

The then Punjab governor Salman Taseer visited Aasia Bibi in jail, criticised her conviction and the blasphemy law. A couple of months later he was gunned down by his bodyguard Mumtaz Qadri. An anti-terrorism court tried the killer and sentenced him to death.

Former minister for minorities’ affairs Shahbaz Bhatti was killed in 2011 after he also criticised the conviction of Aasia Bibi and called for reforms in the blasphemy law.

According to AFP, the woman was accused of making blasphemous remarks during a row over drinking water with women she was working with in a field. She denies the charge levelled against her.

Chaudhry Ghulam Mustapha, the lawyer for the complainant -- a local prayer leader -- opposed the petition on the grounds that it had been filed too late.

Justice Nisar said the court would hear this argument during future proceedings.

At an earlier hearing, Advocate Malook said he would ask the court to look at flaws in the case, including what he termed manipulated evidence.

The lawyer said the allegation of blasphemy had been concocted by the woman’s enemies and had no basis.

The allegations date back to 2009, when Aasia Bibi was labouring in a field and a dispute broke out with some Muslim women with whom she was working.

She was asked to fetch water but the Muslim women objected, saying that as a non-Muslim she was unfit to touch the water bowl.

A few days later the women went to the local cleric and levelled the blasphemy allegation.

Her husband has also written to President Mamnoon Hussain, appealing for her to be pardoned and allowed to move to France.

Critics, including European governments, allege the blasphemy laws are often misused to settle personal scores.
Link


India-Pakistan
Another voice silenced
2015-04-26
[DAWN] THE liquidation of Sabeen Mahmud, director of T2F, a self-described community space for open dialogue in Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
, is a desperate, tragic confirmation that Pakistain's long slide towards intolerance and violence is continuing, and even quickening. Profoundly troubling too are the circumstances surrounding Ms Mahmud's murder. On Friday, T2F hosted the Baloch missing-persons activist Mama Qadeer, after the Lahore University of Management Sciences cancelled an event with Mr Qadeer earlier this month under pressure from the intelligence agencies. Mr Qadeer's activism has been consistently opposed by the security establishment, to the point where few in the media or the activist community choose to interact with him now. Those who do engage with him often report threats. But clearly, in the tumultuous city of Karachi and given the variety of causes Ms Mahmud championed, the security agencies are not the only ones perceived as suspects in her liquidation. Ms Mahmud's work had attracted criticism and threats in the past, particularly from sections of the religious right, which viewed her promotion of the arts, music and culture with great hostility.

While only a thorough investigation can get to the root of the matter, what is clear is that there is not so much a war between ideas in Pakistain as a war on ideas. Free speech, robust debate, academic inquiry, the promotion of individual rights -- anything that promotes a healthy, inclusive and vibrant society is seemingly under attack. Before Sabeen Mahmud there was Rashid Rehman, the lawyer and rights activist who was murdered for defending a college lecturer accused of blasphemy. Before Rashid Rehman there was Perween Rahman, director of the Orangi Pilot Project Research and Training Institute, murdered in Karachi apparently for her work on behalf of poor people against the city's land mafia. Before Perween Rehman there was Malala Yousafzai
...a Pashtun blogger and advocate for girls' education from Mingora, in Swat. She started blogging at age 11-12. She was 15 when a Talib boarded her school bus and shot her in the head in 2012. She was evacuated to a hospital in Britain and the Pak Taliban vowed to kill her and her father. Among other awards, she received the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize, which she deserved more than Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter, Al Gore, Yasser Arafat, or Rigoberta Menchu...
, shot in the head as a young teenager by the Taliban for championing the cause of female education. Before Malala, there were Shahbaz Bhatti and Salmaan Taseer, murdered for daring to question the misuse of the blasphemy laws. Each one of those victims may have been attacked for different reasons and by different groups, but all of them have one thing in common: they were fighting for a better, kinder, gentler Pakistain. And all of them used words and ideas, never weapons, to champion their causes. Pakistain is a poorer place for being without them -- and in Malala's case, for her being unable to return home.

Tragically, the state seems to have all but surrendered to the forces of darkness -- that is when sections of the state themselves are not seen as complicit. Dialogue, ideas, debate, nothing practised and promoted peacefully is safe anymore. Instead, it is those with weapons and hateful ideologies who seem to be the safest now. Sabeen Mahmud is dead because she chose the right side in the wrong times.
Link


India-Pakistan
Islamabad finalises six cases for trial by military courts
2015-01-16
[DAWN] A four-member committee constituted by the Islamabad chief commissioner has finalised six terrorism cases for trial by the military courts, sources told Dawn.

The team comprised deputy commissioner, SSP Islamabad, district attorney and DSP prosecution.

The committee after examining the investigation reports and evidence in a case will send it to the military courts, the sources said.

So far eight high-profile cases have been sent to the committee for examination, they added.

At least 45 incidents of terrorism took place in the capital since 2000, in which 263 people, including security personnel were killed and 944 injured.

The police enjugged
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
 103 alleged bandidos Lions of Islam who were involved in 31 attacks.

A senior police officer told Dawn that the cases included attacks on NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis....
 terminals at Dhoke Paracha on June 9, 2010 and Jeddah Town on October 4, 2010.

Ten people were killed and 12 injured in the two incidents.

The Sherlocks arrested 11 bandidos Lions of Islam in connection with the attacks, he added.

Former minorities minister Shahbaz Bhattis murder case has also been selected for trial by the military courts, the police officer said.

The police had arrested two accused involved in the attack on the minister on March 2, 2011. The suicide kaboom on Ali Masjid at Bhara Kahu has also been selected for trial by the military courts, the officer said.

The Sherlocks arrested six alleged bandidos Lions of Islam who were involved in the attack which took place on August 9, 2013, he added.

The murder case of Federal Investigation Agencys prosecutor Chaudhry Zulfiqar may also be sent to the military courts, the police officer said.

The prosecutor was ambushed in Sector G-9 on May 3, 2013 in which he and a woman were killed.

The Sherlocks arrested three alleged bandidos Lions of Islam for their involvement in the attack.

Another police officer said that paper work in six cases had been completed which were being sent to the interior ministry for trial in the military courts.

Replying to a question, the officer said it was now up to the ministry when it forwarded the case to the military courts.
Link


India-Pakistan
Shahbaz Bhatti murder case moved to military court
2015-01-16
[DAWN] The Islamabad police moved the murder case of Pakistain's former minority affairs minister Shahbaz Bhatti to a military court on Thursday.

Bhatti, a Catholic who vocally opposed the blasphemy law, had been bumped off outside his residence in Islamabad in March 2011. His killing had followed after the high-profile murder of Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer, who had also been killed for demanding the blasphemy law be reformed.

In the past, the All Pakistain Minorities Alliance (APMA) had pointed out that Death Eater threats had hampered the Bhatti murder trial. Threatening pamphlets claiming to be from the Punjabi Taliban had been found in the office of a key witness in the case, APMA had reported.

The murder case of Chaudhry Zulfiqar, the prosecutor in Benazir Bhutto
... 11th Prime Minister of Pakistain in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996. She was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founder of the Pakistain People's Party, who was murdered at the instigation of General Ayub Khan. She was murdered in her turn by person or persons unknown while campaigning in late 2007. Suspects include, to note just a few, Baitullah Mehsud, General Pervez Musharraf, the ISI, al-Qaeda in Pakistain, and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who shows remarkably little curiosity about who done her in...
's murder case was also moved to the military court, along with a number of other high-profile, terror-related cases the IG Islamabad confirmed.

Zulfiqar had been killed in Islamabad in 2013 when he was on his way to attend court proceedings of the BB murder case. At the time, police had jugged
... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not...
 an alleged al Qaeda activist involved in the killing.

All political parties had reached a consensus over the issue of setting up military courts for tackling terrorism cases in the country. Their decision came in the wake of the Taliban attack on the Army Public School Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
 that claimed over 130 lives.
Link


India-Pakistan
A test case for justice
2014-11-18
[DAWN] The horrifying case of the killing and burning of a young Christian couple, Shama and Sajjad, by a mob in a village in Kasur could become a test case for the government to demonstrate -- for once -- its commitment to the rule of law in incidents where the vulnerable are attacked.
It won't.
For the first time, the state has become a petitioner in the case and appointed a minister, Kamran Michael, to be the focal person on the case.
In Pakistain there's no difference between civil and criminal law. If there's no "first information report" filed then the crime didn't happen. If the FIR is withdrawn then the crime unhappens.
However,
those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things...
 we cannot hold our breath expecting justice to be miraculously delivered. Going by past instances, it is members of minority communities who are persecuted -- and prosecuted -- while perpetrators are set free. The administration and the judiciary are responsible for this unjust state of affairs.

Meanwhile,
...back at the argument, Jane reached into her purse for her .38...
 the family of Shama has already rejected the government's decision and has decided to be plaintiffs themselves, demonstrating a lack of trust in the government.

The greatest challenge in the current situation is one of impunity. Since the addition of Sections B and C to PPC 295 (commonly known as blasphemy laws) by the government of Gen Zia ul Haq
...the creepy-looking former dictator of Pakistain. Zia was an Islamic nutball who imposed his nutballery on the rest of the country with the enthusiastic assistance of the nation's religious parties, which are populated by other nutballs. He was appointed Chief of Army Staff in 1976 by Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, whom he hanged when he seized power. His time in office was a period of repression, with hundreds of thousands of political rivals, minorities, and journalists executed or tortured, including senior general officers convicted in coup-d'état plots, who would normally be above the law. As part of his alliance with the religious parties, his government helped run the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan, providing safe havens, American equipiment, Saudi money, and Pak handlers to selected mujaheddin. Zia died along with several of his top generals and admirals and the then United States Ambassador to Pakistain Arnold Lewis Raphel when he was assassinated in a suspicious air crash near Bahawalpur in 1988...
 in 1986, over 60 people have been killed -- either by enraged mobs or individuals (including coppers) in prisons.

Since the killing of Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer, calls for the repeal of blasphemy laws have died.
The first case to come to public attention was that of Naimat Ahmar in 1992, a 45-year-old Christian school teacher in Faisalabad
...formerly known as Lyallpur, the third largest metropolis in Pakistain, the second largest in Punjab after Lahore. It is named after some Arab because the Paks didn't have anybody notable of their own to name it after...
 who was stabbed to death by a student. According to subsequent reports, he was targeted for refusing to be transferred to another town; his position in the government school was desired by a Moslem teacher. Following wall chalking accusing Ahmar of blasphemy, a 20-year-old student, Farooq, killed him.

Since then the toll has risen. Manzoor Masih, accused of blasphemy, was killed at a bus stop in Lahore in April 1994. A deeply religious man and homeopathic doctor, Farooq, was lynched and burnt to death in Gujranwala in 1994. Samuel Masih was killed by a policeman assigned to guard him in hospital in 2003.

In April 2008, a factory worker in Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
, Jagdish Kumar, was lynched by fellow workers. And so the list goes on.

Whether it's a matter of targeting an individual or a community, personal enmity or an eye on property has almost always been a factor. Shantinagar in 1997, Gojra in 2009 and Joseph Colony (Lahore), and Francis Colony (Gujranwala) in 2013 are examples where crowds have been instigated to attack entire neighbourhoods of Christians allegedly by property grabbers. In July this year, four members of the Ahmadi community were killed in Gujranwala when their home was attacked by a mob on the pretext of a member having committed blasphemy.

In all the above cases, no one was convicted. The course of 'justice' in each case reveals the painful reality that non-Moslems cannot place hope in either the administrative or legal system. Credibility is stretched when in each case, we are informed that the Christian community, after incurring deaths and damage to property, has 'forgiven' the perpetrators -- the Moslem majority.

This happened in the case of Gojra when seven Christians were burnt alive and four rubbed out while many homes were damaged because a Christian man had allegedly desecrated pages of the Koran. The Punjab government proudly spoke of 'reconciliation' achieved through its efforts. Although many homes were reconstructed, the acute sense of injustice the community continues to feel is understandable.

In the case of Joseph Colony, those tossed in the clink
Book 'im, Mahmoud!
 for destroying over 160 Christian homes were quickly released on bail with no further progress reported on their trial. The sole Christian charged, Sawan Masih, whose alleged blasphemy had been used to instigate mobs, was given the death sentence in a rare display of speedy justice.

From Shantinagar to Gojra and to Francis and Joseph colonies, the role of the Punjab police needs special investigation.

Again it stretches credibility when we see the Punjab police showing helplessness in controlling a charged mob attacking non-Moslems, while its brutality is evident when it's a matter of dealing with protesters -- whether it's killing 14 Minhajul Koran workers in Model Town, Lahore, or raining blows on unarmed workers of OGDC in Islamabad.

It seems that elements in the Punjab police have become radicalised and this is an aspect that needs to be probed by the provincial government. The Ahmadi community has made many complaints regarding the Punjab police's role in instigating violence against its members.

Since the killing of Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer in January 2011, calls for the repeal of blasphemy laws have died.

Debate itself has been stifled. Those defending the law claim that it is meant to prevent people from taking the law into their hands. However,
those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things...
 this is precisely what the additional clauses have provoked. It must be remembered that hardly any cases of blasphemy surfaced when the punishment was milder (maximum 10 years' imprisonment) and applied to all faiths, instead of being Islam-specific. Have people suddenly become irrational in deliberately committing blasphemy since the introduction of these clauses?

The liquidation of Taseer, followed by that of minorities affairs minister Shahbaz Bhatti, demonstrated that even criticism of the blasphemy laws is being considered a blasphemy offence. The weak response of the then government to the two high-profile killings of leaders who also happened to belong to the ruling party emboldened bigots. And with the two deaths, it appears the few voices of opposition also died.

An attempt by then PPP MNA Sherry Rehman to introduce reforms was disowned by her own party.

The stifling of criticism ensures that the pattern of persecution continues unchallenged: make an allegation against someone you have a grudge against (preferably a non-Moslem), have announcements made against the person through mosques, collect a mob and surround the person or community.

Mission accomplished and few questions asked. Let the Shama-Shahzad case restore a semblance of justice.
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India-Pakistan
Taliban Group Gives Up Armed Struggle In Pakistan
2014-09-15
[Telegraph] Leader of the Punjabi Taliban, one of Pakistain's most effective terror groups, says it is to end its insurgency and embrace charity work

One of Pakistain's most deadly Taliban groups has abandoned its armed struggle and announced it will focus on a peaceful campaign calling on the country to adopt Islamic sharia law.

The Punjabi Taliban is believed to have carried out a number of significant terrorist attacks, including the 2009 assault on the Pakistain army's general headquarters in Rawalpindi, in which nine soldiers were killed; the commando raid on the Sri Lankan cricket team in the same year, and the 2011 attack on the naval airbase at Mehran in which 18 servicemen and two US-donated aircraft were destroyed.

It has also been blamed for a number of sectarian atrocities, including attacks on the country's Ahmadi Moslems and the liquidation of Pakistain's Christian minorities minister Shahbaz Bhatti in 2011.

The announcement is seen as a further setback for Pakistain's alliance of 'Taliban' terrorist groups, which has suffered a number of fractures in recent weeks.

The Tehrik e Taliban Pakistain umbrella group broke into three factions earlier this month after a group of commanders, mainly Mehsud and Wazir rustics from North Wazoo, announced they had broken away to form their own group.

Observers said they were divided over the Pakistain army's offensive in the tribal areas which has driven thousands of people from their homes and fuelled dissent over whether the gunnies should fight their own country's army. There is also opposition to the umbrella group's leader, Mullah Fazlullah
...son-in-law of holy man Sufi Mohammad. Known as Mullah FM, Fazlullah had the habit of grabbing his FM mike when the mood struck him and bellowing forth sermons. Sufi suckered the Pak govt into imposing Shariah on the Swat Valley and then stepped aside whilst Fazlullah and his Talibs imposed a reign of terror on the populace like they hadn't seen before, at least not for a thousand years or so. For some reason the Pak intel services were never able to locate his transmitter, much less bomb it. After ruling the place like a conquered province for a year or so, Fazlullah's Talibs began gobbling up more territory as they pushed toward Islamabad, at which point as a matter of self-preservation the Mighty Pak Army threw them out and chased them into Afghanistan...
, who is based in Kunar province
... which is right down the road from Chitral. Kunar is Haqqani country.....
 in Afghanistan and regarded as an outsider by Wazir and Mehsud rustics.

The rift has been credited with yielding intelligence which led to the arrest of a gang of turbans Pakistain's security forces believe carried out the failed liquidation attempt on Malala Yousafzai, the 14-year-old schoolgirl who defied the Taliban's ban on female education.

The Punjabi Taliban's existence and the success of its terrorist operations has been a long-standing challenge to government attempts to portray its insurgency as one led by distant gunnies from the country's unruly tribal frontier rather than strongly rooted in Pakistain's heartland.

Its announcement that it was abandoning its "armed struggle" was made with a declaration of its patriotism and desire to defend Pakistain from "outside threats".

Punjabi Taliban chief Ismatullah Muawiya said that after consulting other Moslem leaders, the organization would now limit its use of force to "infidel forces" and would focus on promoting sharia law.

In a video message, Muawiya said the Punjabi Taliban would continue to operate in Afghanistan but would focus on "Dawat Tablig" preaching and called on other Taliban factions to abandon their insurgencies in Pakistain.
He called on the Pakistain government to compensate those affected by its offensive in Waziristan and other tribal agencies and to rehabilitate them with "honour and dignity".

"Peace is the need of the hour to foil conspiracies against Pakistain and its people," he said.

The announcement was welcomed by military sources in Pakistain who said it was a significant development involving a group which had inflicted heavy casualties on the army. Questions remained, however, about the group's intentions in Afghanistan.

"This is a very important group which had been committed to attacks and terrorism, they have been very effective in the past. This [announcement] will demoralise the others. It shows the military operation in North Waziristan is having an effect. It would be very unfortunate though if Pakistain allows them to go to Afghanistan -- we have to make sure they don't use their energies in Afghanistan", said retired Lieutenant-General Talat Masood, a leading strategic analyst.
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