No end in sight
The case of the elderly Ahmadi man – sentenced to death on blasphemy charges – killed by a police constable inside the premises of Adiala jail, is symptomatic of the breakdown of our legal and wider moral system to such an instructive extent that it should not be allowed to pass unnoticed, like most such cases are unfortunately. First of all, the police needs to explain things a lot better than their usual reply in such cases. That prison authorities will begin legal proceedings, etc, is not good enough. Why was the constable armed inside the premises when it is strictly against prison rules? And for how long will policemen decide on life and death matters of others, something not restricted to prisons?
The helplessness of the legal system in such cases is also a continuing concern. The blasphemy matter has become so sensitive that most progressive circles avoid taking it up out of fear of life. It continues to be of little concern to most people, unfortunately, that the law is mostly bended to drag religion into personal disputes. The case of the unfortunate Ahmadi of Adiala jail, too, is reported to be similar; that a land dispute landed the mentally challenged man in jail on trumped up blasphemy charges. So long as this trend remains, justice will be a distant ideal.
It is up to those in power, of course, to take painful yet necessary measures to confront this problem, with force, once and for all. Regressive forces should not be allowed to leverage religion to hound, threaten and kill minorities. This is part of a very big problem confronting Pakistan. It is one that, directly or indirectly, stems of the state’s long time obsession of intermingling religion and politics, which has dragged society so far to the right that problems like misrepresenting the blasphemy law have become monumental societal problems. But so far there is little hope, if any, of the government taking this bull by the horns. Should this problem grow – which it will if unchecked – the government must bear the responsibility.
