KARACHI:
The hearing of an application filed by former Sindh home minister Zulfiqar Mirza, questioning the powers and jurisdiction of a single judge in the proceedings against him for alleged blasphemy and the inability of the police to take action, was adjourned till May 22 here on Thursday by a division bench of the Sindh High Court comprising Justice Maqbool Baqar and Justice Muhammad Shafi Siddiqui.
Earlier, his lawyer Anwar Mansoor Khan submitted that it was a political stunt and his client had not committed or uttered words which fell into the definition of blasphemy. Instead there were video and audio recordings in which he had praised the last Prophet (pbuh).
He relied upon a fatwa or religious decree by the revered ulema of Binoria Town mosque and said that Mirza has been absolved of such allegations of blasphemy. Ulema alone can judge whether an individual has committed blasphemy, he submitted.
He said the person who filed the case belonged to a political group which has a known rivalry with Zulfiqar Mirza.
It was aimed at spreading chaos, he said. Mirza’s lawyer also questioned the proceedings before a single judge and called it unjustified on the grounds that if the police could have found any evidence it could have booked Mirza.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 18th, 2012.
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