Religious fanaticism is still rampant
MULTAN: An anti-terrorism court has indicted all the 57 accused in the murder case of Mashal Khan, a student of Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan. According to the investigation report, the murder was a result of university politics where the deceased being too vocal about the appointment of the university vice-chancellor threatened the order set by a students’ political body.
However, religion was being scapegoated to murder Mashal. Regardless of the actual reasons behind the atrocious act of lynching, the state of freedom of expression is poor in Pakistan. Blasphemy is used to settle personal scores.
As a matter of fact, however, an act of blasphemy against one’s religion cannot be justified as freedom of expression. Nonetheless, the practice of violence and committing atrocious acts in the name of religion isn’t justified either. Despite the constitutional clauses providing protection to minorities, they have been vulnerable to acts of lynching on the grounds of blasphemous, though ambiguous, claims. Despite the gradual transition of the country into a secular state post-Zia’s era, religious fanaticism is still rampant.
Maham Uzair
Published in The Express Tribune, September 22nd, 2017.
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