PAKISTAN: In these days, a Christian
community of a small village Chak 44 of Tehsil Phalia, District Mandi
Bahauddin, Punjab is under threats from a charged Muslim mob of surrounding
areas after a rumor campaign raised against a Christian sweeper Imran Masih who
was falsely accused of watching anti-Islam video lecture on his cell phone of a
Pastor .The voice crying in the wilderness reaches to The Honorable Jim Shannon
MP House of Common of United Kingdom who wrote a letter to Mr. Muhammad Nawaz
Sharif The Prime Minister of Pakistan to take appropriate measures to protect
Christians of the village Chak 44 of Tehsil Phalia, District Mandi Bahauddin.
A noted Christian
human rights defender lawyer, Sardar Mushtaq Gill who heads LEAD, has urged for
an immediate repeal of the blasphemy laws. He termed the law as
"cruel and inhumane" not only for accused but also for the whole Christian
community,in this way the blasphemy laws are more dangerous than terrorism
for Christians in Pakistan keeping in view the previous attacks at Christian’s
localities on the pretext of blasphemy.
Under this
law all the human rights violations undoubtedly would occur if unluckily the
accused is a Christian. No fair investigation, no fair trial, extra-judicial
killing, whole Christian community at risk, it is not in line with
international standards on freedom of expression; freedom of thought,
conscience and religion and it is also against the fundamental rights which are
basic rights to survive in this world.
The bitter
fact is that the misuse of the blasphemy law is a common practice mostly to
decide personal vendetta and there is no proper policy of Pakistani authority
how to take
appropriate measures to protect Christians from
the charged mob motivated on the pretext of blasphemy issue.
The more disturbing factor for us to consider is that no one
has the power to criticize as the notorious law after the assassination of two
high profile political figures. The people who defend the accused of this law
take personal life risk and sometime loss their life. Every case is harmful not only for
victim but also for the community, every case is a tragedy and behind every one
of them there are more tribulations and the defender will not be successful
unless he himself takes life risk to defend them; and the requirement for the
success in every case is 'passion' and for which you [Defender] have to put his
own life at stake.
The victims of the law and their
supporters should not be deliberately downplayed and the religiously motivated attacks on Christians should be
covered and documented for the future security measures’ adoption and their
rescue mission by the
media, charities, human rights organizations, church leaders and Christian organizations
not just for their own show of work on websites for this the blasphemy laws
should not be on books to take precious life of Christian and now the time to speak against the dangerous misuse of the law to oppress poor and helpless Christians in Pakistan.
No comments:
Post a Comment