Following the controversial death sentence given to Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi for blasphemy, Samosa contributor Faisal Shakeel looks at the parlous conditions facing the Christian minority in Pakistan.

I felt ashamed when I heard about the death sentence handed down to Asia Bibi under the controversial blasphemy law. It sounded like revival of some medieval ritual of sacrifice; an act of shame emanating from ignorance. The verdict manifests an absolute contempt for freedom of speech and the right to life, liberty and religion.

Asia’s crime, apparently, is her preference of Christ over Mohammad (PBUH) through her belief in Christianity. She was reportedly beaten and locked inside a room by men in her neighbourhood, who saw her belief to be a threat to their own. Later, a case was registered against her under Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Relying upon the section, a judge found Asia’s case fit for punishment by death. What wrong could she have possibly said or done to deserve expulsion from her neighbourhood, separation from her children and isolation in a death cell? The locals believe she should be condemned to death for uttering derogatory remarks against their prophet.

Information about the incident itself is spotty and the law, under which she was tried, lacks credibility not only among the Christian community but jurists too. Dozens of false cases registered under the blasphemy law against Christians, and an almost equal number of acquittals by the higher courts, shed light on the widespread misuse of this law.

General Zia-ul Haq introduced changes in the blasphemy law to drum up support for his “naked military usurpation”. He inserted the section prescribing the death penalty for uttering derogatory remarks against Prophet Mohammad, although the blasphemy law had been part and parcel of the local jurisprudence to safeguard all religions from defamation.

Zia resorted to the slogan of ‘Islamisation’ because he knew the overwhelming majority of Pakistanis would buy it out of their faith. Zia’s plan was bound to work in a society where landlords go scot free after ‘marrying’ their daughters and sisters on the Quran to save their vast properties from division.

The elite and the conniving mullahs fed the majority a distorted version of religion to claw back their share of wealth. The dismal literacy rate and a shamefully small education budget are ample testimony to the skeletons in their closet.

In a country where an overwhelming majority is kept deprived by a few, it does not take rocket science to gauge the plight of the minority: the Christians, Hindus, Sikhs and Parsis. They get the least of the basic facilities, despite these being guaranteed under the constitution, for being at the lowest end of the totem pole.

Walk into a Christian neighbourhood and you find dilapidated houses built into each other on both sides of the narrow streets. Some do not even have front doors, with cheap cotton sheets hanging from the walls betraying privacy. A web of naked electricity wires hangs from electricity poles and walls while children play nearby without any fear or hesitation.

This is the place where Asif Niamat, Pastor of Don Basco Church, resides. He shakes his head in disgust over the sentencing of Asia Bibi and calls for the scrapping of the blasphemy law.

“Blasphemy law is being misused. People implicate Christians to settle their personnel enmities,” says Asif, who works as a receptionist at the Pathology Lab of the King Edward Medical College. “How can we jump down someone else’s throat for their belief? It’s like felling the tree that has your nest.”

He talks of how the younger generation is opting for petty jobs and quitting education, but does not admit they are discriminated against as a community. I assume the Pastor fears inviting the wrath of the majority living at arm’s length.

Rahat Masih, another resident of the same locality, is more candid in his observations: “I am in my late 60s with over 20 years of service as a sanitary worker in the city corporation but I am neither respected nor paid according to my work.”

Masih disagrees with the Pastor that fostering better ties with the Muslim community would improve the Christians’ lot. “What we need is justice,” he emphasises, “if we want to bring in change.”

Unless change trickles from the very top, there is little hope that things will improve at the grassroots. Successive governments after Zia’s death did not change the blasphemy law to stop abuse.

Former Law Minister Khalid Anwar is aware of the problem but says no political party, either in power or opposition, wants to touch these laws for the fear of a public backlash. “As the law minister I had proposed changes in the way a case is lodged against a blasphemy accused. I wanted to make prior approval of top government functionaries a prerequisite but the plan did not meet approval.”