ABSTRACT
In this chapter the author details the blasphemy laws introduced during the military dictatorship of General Zia-ul-Haq and examines how “the law itself provides complainants, vigilantes and mobs the moral high ground”. He considers the case of Ghazi Ilam Din Shaheed, a Muslim from Lahore who was sentenced to death for murdering a Hindu who had published an account of the Prophet Muhammad that Ilam Din believed to be blasphemous. Pakistan’s draconian blasphemy laws have been used to perpetrate legitimised violence, executed in the name of religion. These laws have been used particularly to reinforce the exclusion of religious minorities as well as Muslim-minority sects. The present blasphemy laws in Pakistan are contained in Chapter XV of the Pakistan Penal Code, which was originally enacted by the British in 1860 during the colonial era and amended from time to time. Chapter XI is titled “Of offences relating to religion” and contains 10 sections.
