Muslim-majority Pakistan has sentenced a Christian pastor to life behind bars for allegedly sending out blasphemous texts in another instance of legal abuse of its notorious blasphemy laws.
Advocacy and charity group the British Pakistani Christians Association (BPCA) reveals:
Due to the security reasons, Mr. Zafar Bhatti case proceedings were conducted on the premises of Central Jail Adiala, Rawalpindi, where Zafar Bhatti has been imprisoned since July 2012. Mr Bhatti has faced several attempts on his life at the prison including an incident of poisoning on March 31st 2103 [sic], which left him bleeding from his nose and mouth and left him in critical condition for days.
On 25th September 2014 Mr. Bhatti narrowly escaped assassination after a rogue prison officer shot a 71-year-old British Muslim Muhammed Asghar in a cell adjacent to Mr Bhatti’s. Mr Asghar was taken to a private hospital and later fully recovered from critical condition in a private hospital despite being shot in the chest.”
Muhammad Yousaf, a guard who had been working at the prison where Bhatti is a detainee, was reportedly intent on killing all inmates accused of blasphemy against Islam.
Other prison guards stopped him and removed him from the facility.
Mr. Bhatti’s wife, 65, told BPCA: “There have been numerous attempts to kill my husband – he is bullied every day and he is not safe from inmates and prison staff alike. Every day I worry that I will receive word that he is dead, this worry is making me very age quickly.”
The decision to impose life imprisonment on the 51-year-old pastor Bhatti has drawn the ire of various Christian NGO’s across the country, reports BPCA, noting that they argue the sentence is based on an “Islamic bias that has consumed the nation.”
The group notes that the Lahore High Court that sentenced Bhatti in early May has “no solid evidence,” points out the charity, adding that the blasphemous text messages that authorities accuse the pastor of sending have been traced to a phone owned by someone else.
According to BPCA, the SIM where the text messages originated came from a phone “not registered to Mr Bhatti and was registered to a completely different” person — Ghazala Khan.
Authorities showed Khan some leniency because she is a woman; the Pakistani authorities granted her bail. Shortly after being identified, Khan died of complications from Hepatitis C.
“Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, which are embedded in Sections 295 and 298 of the Pakistan Penal Code, carry the death penalty, and yet there is no provision to punish a false accuser or a false witness of blasphemy,” notes Christian Today. “Allegations of blasphemy often stem from the Muslim accuser’s desire to take revenge and to settle petty, personal disputes, according to Christian groups working in the country.”
Muslims accusing members of the Christian minority in Pakistan is common in Pakistan. Cases erupt every year.
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