Shireen Mazari urges UN to stop Govt from misusing blasphemy law against PTI

Former Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Shireen Mazari wrote a special letter to United Nations (UN) to stop the Pakistani government from misusing blasphemy law against former Prime Minister (PM) PM Imran Khan and his party leaders.

According to Dawn, the letter has been addressed to the UN’s special rapporteur on extrajudicial summary or arbitrary executions, special rapporteur on the freedom of opinion and expression, and special rapporteur on the freedom of religion and belief.

The letter states that the country had been engulfed in a political crisis since PTI was ousted in the aftermath of [which PTI claims] is “regime change scheme” and replaced with a government led by Shehbaz Sharif, who has been named in “multiple money-laundering and corruption cases and is out on bail”.

In the letter, Mazari pointed out major human rights violations conducted against Khan.

“One: A complete blackout of media coverage by state-owned media as well as almost all private channels through a carrot (advertisements) and stick (establishment). In this connection, the government-controlled PTCL, which provides cable connections to cable operators, has denied this access to any private channel seen covering Khan’s massive rallies.”

The second violation highlighted by Mazari was the registration of blasphemy cases against PTI leader in connection with the Masjid-e-Nabwi incident.

According to her, it was not a planned incident. “To use the Madina incident as an excuse to file charges of blasphemy means endangering lives of Imran and party’s leadership,” the former minister wrote.

She informed that one member of the NA from the PTI-allied party is already under custody on blasphemy charges.

Last week, Faisalabad police registered a case under ‘blasphemy laws’ against the PTI chairman and over 150 others following the Masjid-e-Nabwi incident.

Top leaders of the PTI and Imran’s close associates, including Chaudhry, Gill, Suri, Sahibzada Jahangir, Aneel Musarrat as well as Sheikh Rashid Ahmed and his nephew Sheikh Rashid Shafiq were nominated.

The complainant— Muhammad Naeem, a resident of Faisalabad alleged the Masjid-e-Nabwi episode was a “planned and thought-out conspiracy” and supported his claims by referring to videos and speeches made by certain PTI leaders.