LAHORE:
An additional district and sessions judge sentenced a man to death on Monday for scrawling “blasphemous remarks” on walls in the Islampura area.
The judge also imposed a fine on convict Zulfiqar Ali.
Around 11 prosecution witnesses, including the former superintendent police of Islampura, Pervez Qandhari, recorded their statements before the court.
According to the FIR registered by complainant Syed Najmul Hasan under section 295-C against Ali, he was arrested in 2008 after being caught red-handed.
When the court asked Ali why people had registered a case against him, he responded in the court that he did not know. The judge again asked whether any scuffle had occurred between him and the witnesses. To that Ali replied: ‘No’.
The judge doubted the mental stability of the convict and so he, under Article 84 of the Qanon-e-Shahadat Ordinance, asked the convict his name, father’s name, date of birth and educational qualification.
After Ali answered all the questions correctly, the court decided to proceed with the case.
According to witnesses, the convict was caught red-handed by resident of Islmapura, he apologised and handed them a written statement admitting that he had been committing the crime for the last 15 days.
On the other hand, the counsel for the accused contended that his client was implicated in a forged case and Ali had nothing to do with this case.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 15th, 2014.
COMMENTS (2)
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Blasphemy should not be a crime. Freedom of speech. People should be allowed to say whatever they want, unless it is a threat to national security or directly encourages harm against another person. This does not. So it should not be a crime.
Can anybody believe that a sane man can do anything resembling blasphemy in Pakistan,when he knows the consequences.Just because he answered a few personal questions right,does not make him a sane person.