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Sunday November 19, 2000 (Translation)

No one can pardon the Blasphemy accused — Justice Nazeer

LAHORE: Acting Chief Justice of Lahore High Court Mian Nazeer Akhtar has said that no one has the authority to pardon the accused of blasphemy. Prophets can forgive in his life but after his death this right has ceased. He was delivering a lecture on the subject of Blasphemy Laws in F. C. College on Saturday. He said that 17 persons were punished on account of blasphemy when Mecca fell to Muslims. Justice Mian Nazeer said that in Pakistan Blasphemy Laws were not misused. Courts decide on the basis of evidence considering all the facts. Muslim history tells us that so far blasphemers were punished on 70 occasions. He explained that this law is for the benefit of accused so that people don't take the law in their hands and do not punish the accused by themselves. He said that western countries are unjustifiably beating the drum that Muslims misuse Blasphemy laws. Other laws also have punishments but foreign powers are only after this particular law. He said that this law has provided safety to non-Muslims. In Question Answer session with students Chief Justice told that those who demand to end the Blasphemy Laws are agents of atheistic powers.

Shaaban 22, 1421 - Sunday, November 19, 2000

Blasphemy law need of the hour, says Justice Nazir

LAHORE: Terming the blasphemy law as the need of the hour, Acting Chief Justice, Lahore High Court, Mian Nazir Akhtar has said that the western propaganda about blasphemy law is quite baseless.

He was delivering a lecture on 'Nizam-i-Mustafa in the light of Quran' held under the aegis of Quran Committee of FC College at here on Saturday. A large number of teachers and students were also present on the occasion.

The Acting Chief Justice noted that the law even used to provide protection to the accused till the decision of the case otherwise the masses would kill him. "The restrain and carefulness shown by the government in this regard can be judged through the fact that not even a single person has been sentenced to death since the enforcement of this law", he maintained. He asserted that various organisations and sections of the society demanding for the amendment in the law were agents of anti-Islam forces who were depicting a wrong impression about this law.

Referring to some articles published in a section of (English) press regarding blasphemy law, he said that the writers of such articles cited various examples from the life of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) in Makkah in which some blasphemy accused were pardoned.

"They solve this problem like a question of mathematics and say that we should forgive the culprits as the Holy Prophet (PBUH) did during his life.

But the fact is that these are the examples of the period before the emergence of Islamic State, after that all the culprits were given proper treatment", he said.

He regretted that those so-called civilised nations were demanding for amending this law who slaughtered millions of Muslims in Bosnia, Palestine, Kashmir, Chechnya and destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. "These are the nations who claim that they believe in the sovereignty of parliament and rule of law, but in our case they even do not let us to enforce a law passed by the parliament", he lamented.

Later, regarding delay in justice in the country, he said that the judiciary was running short of judges, while the number of cases was very high.

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