An additional district and sessions judge on Friday sought comments from the Civil Lines station house officer (SHO) on a compliance petition seeking court’s direction to register a case against three men, including a former Lahore High Court (LHC) justice, for allegedly writing a blasphemous book.
Petitioner Qari Muhammad Rafique said he had gone to the police station with a court order to record his statement but the SHO did not entertain him.
He requested the court to direct the officer to register a case against former LHC judge Muhammad Islam Bhatti for authoring the controversial book Adalat-e-Alia tak ka safar, Muhammad Shoaib of Adil publishers and Ahmad Tahir Mirza, the book’s compiler. The judge had directed the SHO to expedite proceedings in the matter.
Police had earlier said that they received a call on June 11 about Adil publishing the book. They said when they reached Adil’s office the caller was already there. They said they seized the literature and sent its content to the Auqaf Department’s Muttahida Ulema Council for comments.
Advocate Ghulam Mustafa Chaudhry told the court that the book had hurt the sentiments of Muslims. The petitioner said the book had been written to create religious unrest. He requested the court to direct the SHO to register a case against the accused under Sections 295-A, 295-C, 298-B and 298-C of the Pakistan Penal Code.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 28th, 2014.
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I was reading other Tribune articles about honour killings and some of the comments as to why they happen and what should be done etc. which eventually linked me to this article.
It strikes me that holistically all these kinds of issues and particularly this one can be quite radically ameliorated by the immediate and indefinite incarceration and torture with the fullest prejudice of Qari Muhammad Rafique without trial or question and a full force subsequent crackdown (of a similar nature) of any dissenters and persons who protest his arrest.
Pakistan has a proud history of extra judicial activism by the security services. I don't see why this can't be turned to the national advantage.