Additional District and Sessions judge, Peshawar, Mr Roy Bean Sardar Irshad, has sentenced Mr Munawwar Mohsin, a mentally ill sub-editor of the daily âThe Frontier Postâ, to life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 50,000 for committing âblasphemyâ. The facts of this case speak for themselves. On 29 January 2001, a letter sent by a foreigner via e-mail was inadvertently published in the letters column of âThe Frontier Postâ.
| So Mohsin wasn't actually the guy who committed the "blasphemy"... |
The paper was in financial crisis and was hard put to find good English-language journalists in Peshawar. Sub-editor Munawwar Mohsin, who was on duty on the night when the letter landed, did not comprehend the content of the letter and allowed it to be cut-and-pasted into the letters column.
"Yo! Mohsin! We need another inch and a half!"
"Ummm... Here, use this... You seen my bong, man?" |
There was an uproar in the city upon the publication of the said letter, during which the âThe Frontier Postâ office was gutted and a cinema house put on fire.
| Ah, the refined pleasures of life in a great civilization... |
A judicial inquiry into the incident by Justice Qaim Jan Khan discovered that journalist Munawwar Mohsin was a drug addict who had just days earlier run away from the cityâs mental hospital.
| What does one actually do to get tossed into a looney bin in Pakland? |
The doctor there had informed the newspaper about it and then told the inquiry judge that the boy was mentally ill. The judicial inquiry therefore found him of unsound mind. But the sessions judge who sentenced Munawwar Mohsin to life imprisonment Tuesday decided that he was of sound mind.
| "Sound enough to blaspheme Allah! It don't take much sound fer that!" |
He thought in his wisdom that it was enough that the prosecution had not pursued the âdiminished liabilityâ line for him to dispense with professional medical opinion and pass the sentence.
| "So just shut yer trap. I know what best in this sort of case!" |
This is distressing. Judge Irshad is simply reacting to the ârevolutionaryâ Islamic MMA regime of Mr Akram Durrani in the NWFP and nailing his own true colours to the mast.
| "Yew criticizin' me, boy? That's mighty close to blasphemy in these here parts!" |
After coming to power, the MMA regime announced that, among other things, it would pursue accelerated prosecution of blasphemy cases and even wrote to the federal government to direct its attention to this matter with seriousness.
| "Yes! We must deal with these cases quickly and stringently! Otherwise God will turn us all into pillars of salt!" |
In fact, when a false case of blasphemy was brought against a teacher in Lahore by a vested interest bent on victimising him, the Peshawar assembly especially discussed the issue and asked the government to expedite the prosecution.
| "We've heard enough! Go ahead and hang 'im!" |
The upshot was that the said teacher was let off by the Lahore High Court, but was murdered outside the court by some unknown âpiousâ Muslims.
"'Unknown'? C'mon! You know who dunnit! Who was it?"
"You don't wanna know." |
But Judge Irshad of Peshawar is not the only sessions judge who has sought paradise through a judgment such as this one. In August 2000, a Lahore sessions judge (incidentally, a relative of General Zia) convicted one Yusuf Ali of blasphemy and sentenced him to death. But the judgement was so badly written that the convicted person was sure he would get off on appeal. However, to make sure that he was dispatched, a fellow-prisoner shot him to death when he was being taken out of his death-cell.
"Mahmoud! They're takin' Yusuf outta his death cell! They're lettin' him off!"
"Can't have that. Hand me my guns!" |
Needless to say, the murderer was connected to a religious militia.
At the high tide of jihad in the early 1900s, a retired judge of the Lahore High Court was killed in his office by a fanatic who thought he had wrongly bailed out a 14-year-old boy accused of blasphemy in Gujranwala.
| "And we're gonna gang-diddle his little sister, too! That's 'cuz we're virtuous! And pious! And 'cuz we got guns! Wanna see my turban?" |
The internationally abominated blasphemy law in Pakistan has, in one case after another, been exposed by judges who are either too scared to stand up to extremist religious elements or overly keen to prove their âpious credentialsâ. Meanwhile, human rights organisations and minoritiesâ forums have ceaselessly condemned a law that gives a handle to the fanatics among us to vent their extremism as a legal norm.
| Next time somebody starts talking about how intolerant the Puritans were, ask 'em where they got their turbans... |
The law was duly politicised after it was criticised for the sweeping ambit of its wording. The extent of this politicisation can be gauged from the fact that on one occasion a judge of the Lahore High Court actually went public with the statement that blasphemers should be killed by the people in the streets instead of being brought before the court. |