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Islamabad [Pakistan]26th August (ANI): A Supreme Court judge of Pakistan has lamented that generals and politicians have often misquoted and abused the declaration of the country’s founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, to emphasize equal rights for people of all faiths.
“In the past, the generals blamed a lot of claims on Quaid-e-Azam, now lawyers shouldn’t do that. There are already a lot of divisions in society in the name of religion, don’t create more,” said Justice Faiz Issa, Supreme Court The court heard the case of a Christian man accused of blasphemy.
Judge Issa told lawyers that Quaid Azam (Jinnah) “had said that people of all faiths may worship freely in Pakistan.” He was referring to Jinnah’s declaration of independence in August 1947 time speech.
The “generals” he refers to are army chiefs who have seized power four times in Pakistan’s history, who have repealed the country’s constitution and cited or misquoted Jinnah to justify their actions.
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Justice Issa is highly regarded, and although he and his family are under investigation by the government of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, he could become the chief justice position based on his qualifications. After losing power, Khan had said persecuting Issa was “a mistake”.
The court then turned to the case of the accused Salamat Maseeh, a Christian garbage collector working for the Lahore Waste Management Company.
After being told by Masih’s lawyers, Judge Issa wondered why Muslims did not work in garbage collection.
“Cleanliness is dubious. The Sunnah of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) includes cleanliness, but we don’t follow it,” he was quoted as saying by The Times on Friday.
Judge Issa observed that blasphemy was “no small crime” and the punishment was the death penalty.
British-era laws, which were strengthened in many ways during the regime of military ruler General Zior Haq, were often used to target religious minorities and ethnic groups in Pakistan. Investigations and court trials are often shaped by public outrage. Blasphemy is an emotional problem in Pakistan.
However, most Muslims are also victims. In 2021, 42 Muslims will be charged with blasphemy.
Judge Issa criticized the lower court’s approach to Masih’s investigation and trial, further noting that the incident took place in the park and that no one, including the guards, had testified. “There were inconsistencies in the FIR. He noted that the FIR read that the suspect was a missionary and he was not.
Pakistan last year witnessed the lynching and death of a Sri Lankan factory engineer, Priyantha Kumara. Blasphemy charges came from workers he tried to discipline. Kumara should demand the removal of some posters with Arabic text. He is not familiar with the language.
The Dawn newspaper recalled this in an August 24 editorial, taking on the case this month of a Hindu citizen accused of blasphemy. Through timely intervention, police prevented the lynching of Ashok Kumar, a Hindu sanitation worker in Hyderabad, who was accused of blasphemy against the Koran, which the paper called “Vigilante justice”.
The paper looked at the impact on the Hindu community. “All the Hindu families who lived in the six-storey apartment building in Basdar Bazaar, Hyderabad have left and are afraid to stay there after witnessing the anger of the mob. Blasphemy charges are especially damaging to minority communities. Sex: It often forces them to migrate en masse, leaving behind a stable life and income.”
Ahmedis, or Ahmediyyas, who were declared non-Muslims in 1973, continue to face the wrath of the majority Sunni Muslims in rural Punjab. Manawarra also had 16 graves desecrated.
The Ahmadis are severely persecuted in Muslim-majority Pakistan, where discrimination is punished by law and the constitution. Earlier, an Ahmadi was killed in a targeted attack on 17 May. The burials of the two Ahmadis were blocked separately during the year. An Ahmadi place of worship was sealed in Mirpurkas. According to the newspaper, the graves of 173 Ahmadis were desecrated. (ANI)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from the Syndicated News feed, the body of the content may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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