Jang Group (The News) quotes Anti-Islamic, Blasphemous & Anti-Pakistan NGO.

ISLAMABAD: Human Rights Watch (HRW) says that while the US remained Pakistan’s most significant ally and was the largest donor to Pakistan’s flood relief effort, it imposed sanctions on six units of the Pakistan military. “The Leahy sanctions have not ended continuing reports of summary executions by Pakistani security forces,” Ali Dayan Hasan, senior South Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch Hasan said. “Killings by the army need to end, and the US should stop sending mixed signals that allow the army to continue with business as usual.” These findings, contained in the 649-page report, Human Rights Watch’s 21st annual review of human rights practices around the globe, summarise major human rights trends in more than 90 states and territories worldwide. The HRW points out that security forces routinely violated basic rights in the course of counter-terrorism operations. Suspects were frequently detained without charge or convicted without a fair trial. Credible reports emerged that a few thousand suspected members of al Qaeda, the Taliban, and other armed groups were rounded up in a countrywide crackdown that began in 2009 in Swat and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, but few were prosecuted before the courts. The army repeatedly refused to allow lawyers, relatives, independent monitors and humanitarian agency staff access to persons detained in the course of military operations. The Taliban and other religious extremists in Pakistan increased their deadly attacks against civilians and public spaces during 2010, while the Pakistani government’s response was marred by serious human rights violations. “Taliban atrocities aren’t happening in a vacuum, but instead often with covert support from elements in the Intelligence services and law enforcement agencies,” said Ali Dayan Hasan, senior South Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The Pakistan government needs to use all lawful means to hold those responsible to account.” Persecution and discrimination under cover of law against religious minorities and other vulnerable groups have remained serious problems, Human Rights Watch said. On November 7, Aasia Bibi, a Christian from Punjab province, became the first woman in the country’s history to be sentenced to death for the crime of blasphemy. Attempts by government officials and legislators to seek a pardon and amend the blasphemy law were greeted with threats, intimidation, and violence. On December 30, the government backtracked on its promise to review the blasphemy law. On January 4, 2011, Salman Taseer, the Punjab governor, a vocal critic of the blasphemy law, was gunned down in Islamabad by a bodyguard who admitted to the killing, saying he did it because of Taseer’s stance on the issue. Taseer had received numerous death threats for his support of Aasia Bibi. A former information minister, Sherry Rehman, who proposed amendments to the blasphemy law, has also received death threats in the face of government inaction. “No government institution, including the courts, should be immune from public debate in a democratic society,” Hasan said. “Judicial independence does not mean that judicial decisionsÇ or even judges themselvesÇ should not be subject to public criticism.” In November, the Lahore High Court unconstitutionally prevented President Asif Ali Zardari from pardoning Aasia Bibi, the blasphemy law victim. The court also voluntarily accepted for hearing a frivolous petition seeking Rehman’s disqualification from parliamentary office on the grounds that she had committed “apostasy” by trying to offer amendments to the blasphemy law. “It is the right of any member of Parliament to propose legislation,” Hasan said. “For the Lahore High Court to entertain such litigation amounts to legal persecution.” On December 23, the Federal Shariat Court ruled unconstitutional several key provisions of the 2006 Women’s Protection Act, which had sought to nullify the provisions of the Hudood Ordinance, another relic of the Zia ul-Haq era. The verdict withdraws the relief provided by the Women’s Protection Act and undermines protections provided in accordance with the fundamental rights’ provisions of Pakistan’s constitution. “It is sad that Pakistan’s judicial system is using its newfound independence to undermine Parliament and restore discrimination and abuse rather than to end it,” Hasan said. Sherry appeared on Geo, Zardari retaliated by ordering Gherao of her house: HRW By our correspondent Tuesday, January 25, 2011 http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=3540&Cat=13&dt=1/25/2011

Tuesday, January 25, 2011, Safar 20, 1432 A.H
http://www.jang.com.pk/jang/jan2011-daily/25-01-2011/u60518.htm

Updated at: 1615   |

LAHORE: The US government is considering a ban on issuance of visa to those people who supported the assassination of former Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer earlier this month. Sources in Washington told Daily Times that the Congress took serious view of cheering, supporting and condoning Taseer’s assassination by one of his bodyguards in Islamabad on January 4, or for publicly encouraging, directly or indirectly, the killing of “blasphemers.” They said the US government was preparing a list of Pakistani journalists, parliamentarians, lawyers and religious leaders who would not be issued visas or allowed to travel to the US for supporting the assassination of Taseer and lionising his assassin. They said journalists Meher Bokhari, Ansar Abbasi, Majeed Nizami, Irfan Siddiqui and Mir Shakilur Rehman, MNAs Shaikh Waqas Akram and Maulana Fazlur Rehman, lawyer Ashraf Gujjar, and religious leaders Sahibzada Fazal Kareem, Syed Munnawar Hassan, Asadullah Bhutto, Maulana Shah Turabul Haq Qadri, Muhammad Ahmed Ludhianvi, Syed Mazhar Saeed Kazmi, Allama Syed Riaz Hussain Shah, Allama Zamir Sajid, Haneef Tayyab, Shahid Ghauri, Farid Paracha, Mufti Naeem of Jamia Binoria, Maulana Asad Thanvi, Maulana Shabbir, Pir Khalid Sultan, Pir Ghulam Siddiq Naqshbandi, Allama Syed Khizr Hussain Shah, Alhaj Amjad Chishti, Allama Ghulam Sarwar Hazarvi, Allama Syed Shamsuddin Bokhari, Pir Syed Ashiq Ali Shah Jilani, Mufti Muhammad Iqbal Chishti, Allama Fazal Jamil Rizvi, Agha Muhammad Ibrahim Naqshbandi Mujaddidi, Maulana Muhammad Riaz Qadri, Maulana Gulzar Naeemi, Allama Syed Ghulam Yaseen Shah, Abul Khair Muhammad Zubair, and all leaders of the Tahaffuz-e-Namoos-e-Risalat Mahaz might face the proposed ban. REFERENCE:  US mulls visa ban on several Pakistanis Staff Report

Thursday, January 20, 2011 http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011\01\20\story_20-1-2011_pg1_6 

Here is a glimpse from "Blasphemous NGO Human Rights Watch"

Persecuted Minorities and Writers in Pakistan

September 1, 1993

Government efforts to Islamicize Pakistan's civil and criminal law, which began in earnest in the early 1980s, have dangerously undermined fundamental rights of freedom of religion and expression, and have led to serious abuses against the country's religious minorities. Several hundred people have been arrested under these laws since 1984, and two men, a Christian and a Muslim, have been sentenced to death for blasphemy.

Legacy PDF: 

Read the report Persecuted Minorities and Writers in Pakistan 

http://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/1993/pakistan/

Pakistan: Repeal Blasphemy Law

Legal Discrimination Emboldens Extremists

November 23, 2010

A police official takes the thumb print of Aasia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman who has been sentenced to death for blasphemy, on an affidavit stating her innocence after she was visited by the Governor of the Punjab Province Salman Taseer (R) at the central jail in Sheikhupura, Punjab Province, on November 20, 2010.

© 2010 Reuters

(New York) - Pakistan's government should immediately introduce legislation to repeal the country's blasphemy law and other discriminatory legislation, Human Rights Watch said today. The government should also take legal action against Islamist militant groups responsible for threats and violence against minorities and other vulnerable groups, Human Rights Watch said. While international and Pakistani human rights groups have long called for the repeal of the blasphemy law, it has come under renewed scrutiny in recent weeks as a consequence of a death sentence imposed on November 8, 2010, on Aasia Bibi, an illiterate farmhand from Sheikhupura district in Punjab province. She was charged under the blasphemy law after a June 2009 altercation with fellow farm workers who refused to drink water she had touched, contending it was unclean because she was a Christian. She is the first woman in Pakistan's history to be sentenced to death for blasphemy, though others have been charged and given lesser sentences. "Aasia Bibi has suffered greatly and should never have been put behind bars," said Ali Dayan Hasan, senior South Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. "The injustice and fear the blasphemy law spawns will only cease when this heinous law is repealed."

President Asif Ali Zardari ordered a review of the case in the face of domestic and international outrage. Government officials have indicated publicly that Zardari is expected to use his constitutional authority to pardon her. Pakistan's "Blasphemy Law," as section 295-C of the penal code is known, makes the death penalty mandatory for blasphemy. In 2009, authorities charged scores of people under the law, including at least 50 members of the Ahmadiyya community, a heterodox sect that claims to be Muslim but has been declared non-Muslim under Pakistani law. Many of these individuals remain in prison.

Legal discrimination against religious minorities and the failure of Pakistan's federal and provincial governments to address religious persecution by Islamist groups effectively enables atrocities against these groups and others who are vulnerable. The government seldom brings charges against those responsible for such violence and discrimination. Research by Human Rights Watch indicates that the police have not apprehended anyone implicated in such activity in the last several years. Social persecution and legal discrimination against religious minorities has become particularly widespread in Punjab province. Human Rights Watch urged the provincial government, controlled by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) party, to investigate and prosecute as appropriate campaigns of intimidation, threats, and violence against Christians, Ahmadis, and other vulnerable groups. On November 18, armed assailants opened fire at an Ahmadiyya mosque in Lahore, the Punjab capital. The mosque had no police protection despite a May 28 attack on two Ahmadiyya mosques in the city that killed 94 people and injured well over a hundred. Those attacks were believed to have been carried out by groups affiliated with the Pakistani Taliban.

The November 18 attack did not result in further loss of life only because of private security provided by the mosque management. Local residents told Human Rights Watch that the police initially sought to portray the attack falsely as a consequence of a dispute within the Ahmadiyya community and only made arrests when the mosque authorities provided security camera footage identifying the attackers. "The Punjab provincial government is either in denial about threats to minorities or is following a policy of willful discrimination," Hasan said. "Provincial law enforcement authorities need to put aside their prejudices and protect religious minorities who are clearly in serious danger from both the Taliban and sectarian militant groups historically supported by the state." Since the Pakistani military government of General Zia-ul-Haq unleashed a wave of persecution in the 1980s, violence against religious minorities has never really ceased. Attackers kill and wound Christians and Ahmadis, in particular, and burn down their homes and businesses. The authorities arrest, jail, and charge members of minority communities, heterodox Muslims and others, with blasphemy and related offenses because of their religious beliefs, as a means of transacting vendettas and settling scores. In several instances, the police have been complicit in harassing and framing false charges against members of these groups or stood by as they were attacked. Human Rights Watch urged concerned governments and intergovernmental bodies to press the Pakistani government to repeal sections 295 and 298 of the Pakistan Penal Code, which includes the blasphemy law and anti-Ahmadiyya laws. They should also urge the government to prosecute those responsible for planning and executing attacks against religious minorities. "Continued use of the blasphemy law is abominable," Hasan said. "As long as such laws remain on the books, Pakistan will remain plagued by abuse in the name of religion." http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/11/22/pakistan-repeal-blasphemy-law 

Pakistan: Allow Pardon for Blasphemy Victim

High Court Overreaches in Barring Presidential Pardon

Protesters demand the release of Aasia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy, at a rally in Karachi on November 25, 2010.

© 2010 Reuters

December 2, 2010

(New York) - A Pakistani court's order to bar President Asif Ali Zardari from pardoning a woman sentenced to death for blasphemy contravenes Pakistan's constitution and should be withdrawn immediately, Human Rights Watch said today. The Lahore High Court in Punjab province issued an order on November 29, 2010, barring Zardari from exercising his constitutional authority to pardon Aasia Bibi, an illiterate farmhand who had been convicted by the Sheikhupura District Court of blasphemy and sentenced to death. Zardari had ordered a review of the case in mid-November, after domestic and international outrage over the sentence. A ministerial inquiry concluded on November 25 that the district court verdict was legally unsound. "The Lahore high court has overstepped its constitutional authority by preventing President Zardari from pardoning Aasia Bibi, who was unjustly convicted under a discriminatory law," said Ali Dayan Hasan, senior South Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. "The court has blocked Zardari from promptly correcting a cruel wrong and instead has disgraced Pakistan's judiciary."

Aasia Bibi was charged under the blasphemy law after a June 2009 altercation with fellow farm workers who refused to drink water she had touched, contending it was "unclean" because she was Christian. On November 8, the Sheikhupura District Court found her guilty, ruling that there were "no mitigating circumstances." She is the first woman in Pakistan's history to be sentenced to capital punishment for blasphemy, though others have been charged and given lesser sentences. Pakistan's constitution is unequivocal in providing the president with the power to pardon, Human Rights Watch said. Article 45 of the constitution states that, "The president shall have power to grant pardon, reprieve, and respite, and to remit, suspend or commute any sentence passed by any court, tribunal or other authority." Prior to the action of the Lahore High Court, senior Pakistani government officials had indicated to Human Rights Watch and to the media that Zardari was likely to use his constitutional prerogative to pardon and free Aasia Bibi.

The court stated in its interim order that any pardon would be "premature" as Aasia Bibi's appeal of her conviction was pending before the court. Senior Pakistani lawyers, including Asma Jahangir, a prominent human rights advocate and president of the prestigious Supreme Court Bar Association, the country's most influential forum for lawyers, have publicly criticized the Lahore High Court order. Human Rights Watch reiterated its call for repeal of the blasphemy law and other discriminatory provisions in Pakistan's penal code. International and Pakistani human rights organizations have long called for the repeal of the blasphemy law, as section 295-C of the penal code is known, which makes the death penalty mandatory for blasphemy. The law has come under renewed scrutiny in recent weeks as a consequence of the Aasia Bibi case. In 2009, authorities charged scores of people under the law. Many of them remain in prison. "Not only do those charged under the blasphemy law suffer persecution, it is evident the ill effects of discriminatory laws are compounded by unsympathetic courts," Hasan said. http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/12/02/pakistan-allow-pardon-blasphemy-victim 

Pakistan: Filthy Business

by Ali Dayan Hasan 

November 15, 2010

WHAT on earth did Aasia Bibi do to merit the dubious distinction of becoming the first woman in Pakistan to be sentenced to death for blasphemy? Basically, she, a Christian, and a peasant to boot, had the gall to feel insulted. Why? Because Aasia's fellow workers, all daily wage farmhands from the village of Ittanwali in Sheikhupura district, claimed that the water she served was ‘unclean' because of her faith. Aasia Bibi dared express her outrage at this act of brazen prejudice, maintained that her faith was as good as any and refused to convert to Islam. Up to that point, this was a minor altercation brought on perhaps by a combination of ignorance and blazing tempers due to excessive, underpaid toil in the blistering summer heat.

But little did Aasia Bibi know that life was never going to be the same again after the events of that day in June 2009. A few days later, her perfectly sane reaction resulted, as is often the case, in a frenzied mob led by a local mullah attempting to attack her for blasphemy and the police taking her into ‘protective custody'. And depressingly, as is the case equally often, once in their custody, the police found it expedient to charge Aasia under the heinous Section 295 C of the Pakistan Penal Code otherwise known as the blasphemy law rather than hold accountable those who threatened her life.

Thereafter, Aasia rapidly made the journey from police lockup in Nankana to under-trial prisoner at Sheikhupura District Jail. Aasia Bibi's case is so unremarkable, so commonplace, so routine in its casually callous violation of basic rights that it did not even register in the public consciousness. And, of course, it is no secret that the belief that Christians, and non-Muslims in general, are ‘unclean', though not propagated by any known school of Islamic thought, has widespread currency, particularly in Punjab. In all likelihood, the police felt the mob was justified. There is a thin line between faith-based lack of hygiene and blasphemy goes this logic. And it is crossed if you refuse to view your faith as filth. But Pakistan's lower-level judiciary managed through a shockingly bigoted judgment passed on Nov 7 to bring Aasia Bibi's case to centre stage. In sentencing Aasia Bibi to death under Section 295 C, Judge Naveed Iqbal of the Sheikhupura district and sessions court "totally ruled out" any chance that Aasia was falsely implicated and said there were "no mitigating circumstances". Apparently, the court thought that it is absolutely fine to argue that Christians are simply unclean and if they respond by accusing the allegers of bigotry, they are guilty of blasphemy.

The Sheikhupura district and sessions court judgment highlights to the world what anyone who has ever traversed the muddy waters of Pakistan's law-enforcement and judicial system knows all too well: the investigative capacity of the police is virtually non-existent and the police habitually caves in to Islamist-inspired mobs in the name of ‘preserving public order', particularly when it comes to vendettas against religious minorities. Too often, the lower-level judiciary lacks the training to adjudicate within the framework of the law and frequently brings its own political and social prejudices to bear in its approach to the law.

It is a sobering thought that, in contrast to the two-year training programme offered to civil servants, district judges receive barely a fortnight of orientation. These judges are meant to dispense justice without any training in judicial ethics and conduct, interpretation and application of the law, or even the basics of judgment writing. And there are complaints that they lack the staple of a proper judiciary: the capacity to dispense justice devoid of personal prejudice. While Pakistan's independent judiciary engages in constitutional nit-picking with the legislature and the executive, it has singularly failed to meaningfully address what should be its highest priority - putting its own house in order to ensure that there is meaningful justice delivered where it is most urgently needed, at the local level.

And finally, there is the issue of Section 295 C itself. It is ironic that the jurisprudence in favour of the controversial provision has uniformly argued that Section 295-C achieves the declared objective of preventing vigilante justice. The argument suggests that the blasphemy law prevents private citizens from killing blasphemy suspects because it offers them legal routes to carry out the persecution they intend. This argument is fallacious, morally reprehensible and seeks through legalised discrimination to relieve the state of its duty as non-partisan guarantor of the citizens' security. 

Not only is 295 C in violation of both international norms and the fundamental rights' provisions of the Pakistani constitution, its vague all-encompassing wording allows it to be used as an instrument of political and social coercion and discrimination against some of the most disempowered sections of society - religious minorities, heterodox Muslims and the poor. The obscene consequences of the blasphemy laws have been evident for decades now through the continued criminalisation and persecution of those the state ought to actually be protecting. Human Rights Watch has long argued that Sections 295 and 298 of the Pakistan Penal Code ought to be repealed in totality. Failure to repeal makes successive governments, and the state itself, complicit in heinous discrimination and egregious human rights abuse." So long as the state continues to act as a sectarian, partisan actor and the judiciary continues to uphold discriminatory laws and provide legal justifications for the misplaced values they enshrine, there will be many more victims like Aasia Bibi silently suffering in the shadows. The writer is Senior South Asia Analyst for the New York-based Human Rights Watch.  http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/11/15/filthy-business 

REAL AND UGLY ROLE OF JANG GROUP OF NEWSPAPERS/THE NEWS INTERNATIONAL/GEO TV

WASHINGTON, Jan 18: Four US Congressmen have asked Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to refuse visas to those who praised the assassination of Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer and showed support for his assassin Mumtaz Qadri. In a letter sent to Secretary Clinton, Congressmen Gary Ackerman, Steve Israel, Peter King and Michael McCaul said: “Some of the most prominent clerics, journalists and lawyers who have praised Mr Taseer`s death and have demonstrated support of his murderer, are people who frequently travel to the US and hold American visas.

Thursday, November 25, 2010, Zilhajj 18, 1431 A.H
http://www.jang.com.pk/jang/nov2010-daily/25-11-2010/main4.htm

Barelvi Mullah "Shah Turabul Haq" & Barelvis support Killing in the name of Islam despite of the Fact that Salman Taseer was a Muslim.

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLNDVx6SBTI&feature=related

Barelvi Mullah "Shah Turabul Haq" & Barelvis also say that "Deobandis" are Kaafir

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-CLvKKMaQ4&feature=player_embedded

Same Shah Turab ul Haq Qadri also declare that Ashraf Ali Thanvi (Deoabndi) and Wahabis (Saudis) all are Kaafir

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egiMssueRSc

Reporter - Can violence be used to defend religion? - Ep 103 - Part 1

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dikYoLlXKso

http://ejang.jang.com.pk/1-6-2011/Karachi/pic.asp?picname=1059.gif

“We urge you to identify those Pakistani citizens that have shown demonstrable support of the assassination of Governor Taseer. “We further request that visas not be issued to such people and that applications for new visas from those who have endorsed this heinous crime be denied,” the letter said. After Governor Taseer`s assassination, thousands of supporters of extremist groups, including Jamaat-ud-Dawah, held rallies in cities to express support for Qadri.

Reporter - Can violence be used to defend religion? - Ep 103 - Part 2

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PSw69ffMwA&feature=related

JUI chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman also addressed a rally in Karachi and pledged to defend Qadri in court. He is a frequent traveller to the United States. The US media noted that lawyers and members of radical groups showered rose petals on Qadri when he was produced in courts in Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Dozens of lawyers offered to defend him free of charge. The lawmakers said in the letter that their request for denial of visas to supporters of Qadri was “not just a moral issue but also an issue of national security”.

Reporter - Can violence be used to defend religion? - Ep 103 - Part 3

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtuFeLhtPUU&feature=related

They said it was “shocking” that Mr Taseer, a “strong advocate for religious tolerance, pluralism and democracy,” was “cut down by an assassin`s bullets who opposed changes to statutes against religious minorities.” “This unspeakable tragedy has been compounded by the public reaction of significant elements of Pakistan`s clerical, journalistic and law community who have praised the murderer and threatened the lives of other Pakistani officials who refuse to comply with the terrorisation of Christians, Ahmedis and women,” the letter said.

Reporter - Can violence be used to defend religion? - Ep 103 - Part 4

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nT1YWnBhxJg&feature=related

http://ejang.jang.com.pk/1-5-2011/Karachi/pic.asp?picname=108.gif



Reporter - Can violence be used to defend religion? - Ep 103 - Part 5

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hdsa5pq3Yag&feature=related

“Further problems are plaguing the democracy in Pakistan,” the lawmakers noted, pointing out that PPP MNA Sherry Rehman had also received threats for introducing a bill in the National Assembly, proposing amendments to the controversial blasphemy law. “Further threats and violence are not the answer,” the letter added. REFERENCE: US lawmakers seek visa ban for Qadri supporters From the Newspaper (19 hours ago) Today By Anwar Iqbal http://www.dawn.com/2011/01/19/us-lawmakers-seek-visa-ban-for-qadri-supporters.html

Sentiments were exploited against Salmaan Taseer: Ashrafi

* Pakistan Ulema Council chairman says whosoever declared it was justified to kill Taseer should come on media to prove his claim before nation

Daily Times Monitor

LAHORE: Pakistan Ulema Council (PUC) Chairman Allama Tahir Ashrafi has admitted that late Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer was right in his claims regarding the misuse of the blasphemy law against minorities and said that sentiments were exploited against him, a private TV channel reported on Saturday.

Ashrafi maintained that there had been several statements of Taseer, in which he had condemned the blasphemy, adding that not only the late governor, but many Ulemas, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) leaders had also spoken in similar manner.

He pointed out that none of them was a mufti, who decreed that Taseer had turned to be a non-believer, saying that it was the work of a mufti and Darul Iftaa to deliver such edicts.

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Fazlur Rehman and Abul Khair Zubair, a few days back, maintained that no authentic mufti gave an edict of killing Taseer, the channel quoted Ashrafi as saying.

The PUC chairman questioned that why the blasphemy law was not implemented when on 12th Rabbiul Awwal of this Islamic year (in 2010), some 750 copies of the holy Quran and several books of Hadith and Tafseer were set on fire by unidentified people at late Allama Ziaul Haq Qasmi’s residence in Faisalabad and a footage of this incident was also present.

“After the incident, Sunni Ittehad Council Chairman Sahibzada Fazal Karim sought registration of an FIR under 295-C against Zahid Qasmi, son of late Qasmi. Both the sides, sects ‘Deobandi’ and ‘Barelvi’, requested police seeking FIRs against each other, but the issue was resolved later,” he recalled and questioned why such a settlement was not counted as blasphemy or profanity, the channel reported.

Ashrafi also questioned that the case of Aasia Bibi was in court and “if the high court releases her”, the clerics would, then, accept this decision or not. Adding to the same point, he said, “If the clerics accepts her release by the high court, then who would be responsible for Salmaan Taseer’s blood.”

He strongly criticised those who had been providing safety to the murdered the governor, the channel said.

Ashrafi further said, “If an accused says that he/she has not committed blasphemy, even Ulema-e-Ahnaf have the capacity to acquit him/her.” Salmaan’s matter was political, he added.

He questioned why this matter gained attention when Fazlur Rehman quitted the coalition. He also said that Mazhar Saeed Kazmi, brother of former religious minister Hamid Saeed Kazmi, was now saying that it was not appropriate to offer the funeral prayers of Salmaan Taseer. “This is so unfortunate. Why Kazmi did not talk such thing when he was enjoying the ministry of religious affairs,” he added.

Neither Salmaan Taseer was Rajpal nor Mumtaz Qadri was Ghazi Ilm Din Shaheed, the PUC chairman said and claimed that even the most impious person could not dare to commit blasphemy. Salmaan’s statement was on record and he could not even imagine doing so, he maintained.

He recalled that Taseer’s father MD Taseer was the person who provided a death-bed to Ghazi Ilm Din Shaheed and Syed Ataullah Shah Bukhari called Taseer’s mother his sister. He said that the governor could be a bold person, offensive to a maulvi but he could not be a blasphemer. Ashrafi said that the one who declared that it was justified to kill Salmaan Taseer should come on media and prove it in front of the nation.

Senior Analyst Syed Mumtaz Shah, who also participated in the TV programme, said that, in 1981, there was a baton-carrying mob, in which two parties were raising different voices on Naara e Risaalat and were harming each other. One was saying Ya Rasool Allah and the other was saying Muhammad-ur Rasool Allah, he said, adding that cases were filed against each other.

Renowned Journalist Abbas Athar said that Barelvi ulemas banned offering Salmaan’s funeral prayers, adding that they had also remarked on the funerals of Lal Mosque’s girls that they were against the state. He questioned that did Mumtaz Qadri, being on duty, showed his loyalty with the state by shooting the governor. He asked that why not his treachery be highlighted. He also said that the biggest problem in the blasphemy law was that “when anyone gets blamed for committing blasphemy then it suddenly becomes a mob’s law”. He said that whenever it would be exposed there would be money behind the assassin and conspiracy too, adding that Mumtaz Qadri was not alone in it.

Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) member Azam Nazeer Tararr advocate said that everyone was agreed on the punishment of blasphemy, but haste was used while imposing it. He said that an inquiry should be made for complaints against the government officials, adding that “our problem is that the law is handed over to those who don’t have any training to bear the public pressure and use to surrender in front of it”. He said that according to the constitution, everyone had the right to defend themselves, adding that Article 4 and 9 defended the basic rights of living. He further said that extrajudicial killing was the violation of the constitution and human rights, adding that Taseer’s murder was an extrajudicial killing, which could not be justified.

He further said that there was a decision of the Lahore High Court (LHC) former chief justice, Khawaja Sharif, present in the light of a Hadith saying that “the Prophet (PBUH) said that 10 guilty ones can be freed but no innocent can be punished on the base of doubt”, the channel said.  Sunday, January 09, 2011 http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011%5C01%5C09%5Cstory_9-1-2011_pg7_18 

Source: Express, 8 January 2010