LAHORE: The Holy Prophet (PBUH) had awarded the death penalty to 20 people committing blasphemy, former Lahore High Court (LHC) chief justice (CJ) Mian Nazir Akhtar claimed on Monday. He made these remarks while addressing a lecture at the Jamaat Ahl-e-Sunnat Pakistan (JAP) Central Secretariat. Akhtar said that the blasphemy case was a serious matter and people committing blasphemy were awarded the death plenty during the Holy Prophet’s era.
The former LHC CJ informed the audience that according to Quran’s teaching there was a capital punishment for committing blasphemy. He said that parliament had no right to amend blasphemy laws and if it happened, it would be un-Islamic and Muslims would take the law in their hands and kill people involved in such an act.
Akhtar said that during his tenure as a LHC judge, he had passed a verdict that excessive punishment for blasphemy was right and if blasphemy laws were abolished, Muslims would take revenge themselves by following in Ghazi Ilm Din Shaheed’s footsteps. He said that the president had no right to change blasphemy laws and Islam did not allow any settlement in such an issue while the president could not pardon a criminal who had committed blasphemy.
The former LHC CJ said that after introducing Article 295-C, nobody had been hanged for implementing the law and Islamic history was studied, 100 people were awarded death sentences for committing blasphemy. “It is not justice to abolish any law and if it is being misused, we should try to stop such a practice” he said.
