While Christians fear that government compliance with Pakistan’s Federal Shariat Court’s (FSC) order given on December 4 to remove life imprisonment as a punishment for insulting Muhammad could usher in a new era of persecution, some critics said the greater concern is that it could broaden the powers of the controversial court.
Section 295-C of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws calls for either death or life imprisonment for persons convicted of insulting Muhammad. The FSC has given the government a ‘couple of months’ to implement, through parliament, the order to remove life imprisonment as a possible punishment. The FSC order comes less than three years after assassinations of two government officials silenced most criticism of the blasphemy laws.
Symbolic significance only?
While it could further encourage extremists to attack those they believe are insulting Muhammad, the FSC order may have little specific legal impact, since judges have tended to issue death-penalty sentences for such convictions, according to Yasser Latif Hamdani, who practises law in superior courts.
