The controversial Blasphemy Law, enacted in its current form during the military dictatorship of General Ziaul Haq in the 1980s, has made big headlines in and outside Pakistan. Oflate, the world came to know about it only when former governor of the Punjab province, Salman Taseer, was gunned down by his guard Mumtaz Qaderi on January 4th, 2011. Qaderi said Taseer, aman of liberal and moderate religious thoughts, had committed blasphemy by visiting a Christian lady Aasia Bibi, convicted to death for blaspheming the Holy Prophet Mohammad. Almost two monthslater, Shahbaz Bhatti, the minister for Minorities Affairs, was assassinated on March 2nd in front of his mother’s house. His crime; he had been advocating changes to the law of blasphemy to prevent itsabuse by unscrupulous people, particularly in the rural areas. Statistics suggest that people, in order to settle personal scores, to take revenge, or to implicate rivals in crippling litigation, tend to lodgecomplaints againt rivals under the Blasphemy Law. Even otherwise, a number of innocent people have lost their lives under the ruse of having committed blasphemy.

A human rights activist, and a CRSS associate, Mohammad Nafees, based in Karachi, has painstakingly compiled statistics on injustices and murders that have been committed under the excuse ofBlasphemy Law.

These statistics are quite revealing and instructive and the CRSS is posting them for a wider audience to get a glimpse of the consequences that the Blasphemy Act has entailed. more…