Pak court sentences two to 7 years for blasphemy

["Ulhas Joglekar" <ulhasj@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Sunday
3 September 2000

Pak court sentences two to 7 years for blasphemy
LAHORE: A judicial magistrate in Pakistan's Punjab province has sentenced
two persons to seven years' rigorous imprisonment and asked them to pay a
fine of Rs 10,000 each under the country's controversial blasphemy law.
The sentence was passed more than a year after a case (June 4,1999) was
registered at a local police station on a complaint filed by a man
identified as Mohammad Yousaf and several others.
Yousaf accused Naseemul Ghani and Mohammad Shafiq of burning pages of the
Holy Quran and violating the sanctity of a shrine situated in the area. The
complainants also accused the two of misbehaving with the devotees visiting
the shrine.
Eight prosecution witnesses were produced during the trial. The court said
the case had been proved beyond a shadow of doubt. The accused had denied
the charges. They said the prosecution had failed to prove motive behind the
alleged act of blasphemy, NNI news agency reported.
The blasphemy law was passed in the 1980s by then Pakistani president
Zia-ul-Haq. It was widely seen as a move to please Islamic fundamentalists
in Pakistan. In May 1998, Bishop John Joseph, a prominent human rights
activist in Pakistan, shot himself dead inside the Sahiwal sessions court
after a 25-year-old Christian youth, Ayub Masih, was sentenced to death
under the blasphemy law.
In April this year, Pakistan's Chief Executive Pervez Musharraf moved to
amend the law. But he was forced to retract it a month later following
threats of protests by Islamic fundamentalists. (India Abroad News Service)
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