Religious intolerance termed alarming

The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) and Peoples’ Commission for Minorities Rights (PCMR) have brought the attention of government rights bodies to alarming incidents of violence related to false allegations of blasphemy.

Patron in Chief PCMR Justice (retd) Nasira Javaid Iqbal and Executive Director CSJ Peter Jacob have demanded a prompt response in an urgent appeal sent to the Federal Ministry of Human Rights, Standing Committees on Human Rights of the Senate and National Assembly of Pakistan, the National Commission for Human Rights and One-Man Commission set up by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

The communication included data regarding 57 cases of alleged blasphemy and four extra-judicial killings reported between January 1 and May 10 of this year. The most allegations, 28, were reported in Punjab, followed by 16 in Sindh, eight in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and five in Azad Jammu and Kashmir. A list of cases was also dispatched to government rights bodies.

Since 1994, 92 persons have been killed after alleged offences related to religion. Of those, 50 were Muslims, 23 were Christians, 14 were Ahmadis, two were Hindus and one was Buddhist.

The religions of two other victims could not be ascertained.

The PCMR and CSJ stated in their appeal that blasphemy laws have consistently been instrumentalised to settle personal scores, persecute minorities, perpetrate mob violence and incite hatred in thousands of cases which the government has failed to address.

Sectarian and religious groups have created a climate of impunity for themselves entailing the infringement of freedom of expression, freedom of movement and social interactions, particularly for the minority groups. Therefore, PCMR and CSJ urged the government entities to help end the multiple violations under these heinous practices.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 17^th, 2023.