[DAWN] A division bench of the Sindh High Court's Hyderabad circuit on Friday stayed the proceedings in a case against four people who were booked on charges of blasphemy in Jamshoro a day earlier.On Thursday, a first information report (FIR) was registered under Section 295-A of the Pakistain Penal Code (PPC) against four people after a video clip surfaced showing a woman solemnising the marriage of a man and a woman under what was called "Shariat-e-Latifi".
The video showed a man, a Sindhi nationalist and follower of the Sufi saint Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai, getting the nikkah of his daughter performed by a woman, declaring that this was being done under ’Shariat-e-Latifi’.
Section 295-A of the PPC deals with "deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs", the punishment for which may be a fine or imprisonment for a period of up to 10 years, or both.
Besides the man, his daughter, the woman who performed the nikkah and the groom had been named in the FIR.
As the father of the bride was taken into custody on Thursday, the woman seen solemnising the marriage in the video, represented by Advocate Sajjad Chandio, filed a constitutional petition in the SHC naming the Sindh home secretary, Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Bashir Ahmed Janwari, Senior Superintendent of Police Jamshoro Irfan Bahadur and District Inspector General Hyderabad Khadim Rind as respondents.