PHOTO: REUTERS
Those responsible for publishing blasphemous caricatures in Charlie Hebdo (French satirical magazine) should undergo trial in Pakistan, the Lahore Bar Association (LBA) demanded on Friday. LBA members announced that they would take the Lahore High Court Bar Association, the Punjab Bar Council and the Pakistan Bar Council into confidence and stage a rally against the magazine.
“If Aafia Siddiqui can be tried abroad, French blasphemers should be tried in Pakistan,” an LBA representative said. Anti-Islam forces were trying o hatch conspiracies to weaken the Muslim Ummah, but their attempts will be foiled, they said. “We will make a comprehensive plan to record the legal fraternity’s protest.”LBA’s newly elected president, Chaudhary Ishtiaq A Khan, said such activities (publishing blasphemous material) will not be tolerated at any cost. “We will send a strong message of condemnation.” Khan said the LBA had filed a petition in Lahore High Court in 2010 asking for strict measures to stop blasphemy. He said the court ruled in 2012 that the government must devise a comprehensive mechanism to stop such activities.
He said that they would file a contempt petition against the government if they did nothing about the matter. He said they would take the matter to the International Court of Justice. Khan said that the LBA had passed a resolution demand.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 17th, 2015.
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