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March 3, 2006
Pakistan: Supreme Court Orders Block on Websites "Blaspheming" Islam
Pakistan's repressive blasphemy laws have been criticised internationally and within its own borders, as the blasphemy statutes of Pakistan's penal code can invoke the death penalty. In Pakistan's penal code, blasphemy only protects Islam. News from AKI and also Pakistan's Daily Times reports that Pakistan's Supreme Court has ordered the government to block internet sites which commit Islamic blasphemy.
Section 295-C of the Pakistani penal code prohibits imagery which offends Muslim sensitivities:
Use of derogatory remarks, etc; in respect of the Holy Prophet. Whoever by words, either spoken or written or by visible representation, or by any imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, directly or indirectly, defiles the sacred name of the Holy Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) shall be punished with death, or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine.The issue was raised by two petitions, filed against the internet availability of the notorious Danish cartoons. The first was filed by Dr Imran Uppal and the other by Maulvi Iqbal Haider. Uppal, citing article 184(3) of the constitution, wanted a complete block on sites showing such images, and Haider wanted cases to be registered under the infamous blasphemy laws.
The chairmen of the Pakistan Electronic Media and Regulatory Authority (Pemra) and the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), and also Makhdoom Ali Khan, the Attorney General, have been summoned to appear before the Supreme Court on March 13 to give reasons why sites which display such images had not been blocked before now.
As well as PEMRA and PETA, respondents included the Federation of Pakistan Telecommunication Ministry, as well as Yahoo Inc, and 1&1 Co.
Yahoo were recently criticised internationally for buckling in to demands from the Chinese government in September last year to give personal information on a dissident. Shi Tao was subsequently given a 10 year jail sentence for revealing to foreigners that the government in China had asked his newspaper to tone down its coverage of the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. It will be interesting if Yahoo shows a similar lack of integrity in this affair, putting their profits above morality.
Maulvi Iqbal Haider is a crusading trouble-maker, who has initiated a criminal case against editors of several newspapers from Europe which have published the pictures, including Carsten Juste, the editor of Jyllands-Posten, the paper which initially commissioned the cartoons. Any criminal case will have no meaning outside of Pakistan, but it would mean that if found guilty, the editors (and possibly their staff) would be well-advised to stay out of Pakistan.
The Chief Justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry said: "We will not accept any excuse or technical objection on this issue because it relates to the sentiments of the entire Muslim world. All authorities concerned will have to appear in the court on the next hearing with reports of concrete measures taken to implement our order."
Iftikhar Rasheed, chairman of PEMRA, argued that blocking a website was outside of its jurisdiction, and said that the PTA had responsibility for the telecommunications infrastructure and internet service.
This development could mean that sites like our own will be blocked from those living in Pakistan, as we have reproduced the original "offensive" cartoons, and have added our own "blasphemous" cartoon, and we have no intention of removing them.
What this case proves, if it is acted upon, is that despite its illegal acquisition of nuclear weaponry, Pakistan is still a repressive third world nation, backward in its ability to help its earthquake victims, yet prepared to deny its citizens freedom of speech and free access to information.
Last month, the government showed it is not fit to be part of the civilised world when its information minister Sheikh Rashid announced that it would be petitioning the United Nations and the 57-nation OIC to make blasphemy an internationally recognised criminal offence. This backwards suggestion has the full backing of the dictator, President Pervez Musharraf. Rashid quoted the dictator as saying: "No Muslim can tolerate blasphemy against the Holy Prophet (PBUH)."
The US President, George W. Bush Bush begins an official state visit tomorrow morning. One can guarantee the issue of blasphemy and freedom of speech, and also the persecutions of Pakistan's Christian and other religious minorities, will not be mentioned.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at March 3, 2006 6:37 PM
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