Afiya Zia in LSE:
The genealogy of blasphemy laws in Pakistan is not merely a story of legal prohibitions but of a shifting moral economy traversing colonial governance, post-colonial authoritarianism and contemporary populist religiosity. Introduced under British rule through Section 295 of the Indian Penal Code of 1860, these laws were designed to regulate communal sentiment and maintain order rather than serve as sacred doctrine. In post-colonial Pakistan, however, they have become sacralised.
General Zia-ul-Haq’s agenda of Islamisation, starting in 1979, transformed the colonial laws on blasphemy (known commonly as the ‘1927 Statutes’) into doctrinal absolutes, as ‘Hudud Ordinances’. Sections 295-B & 295-C criminalised defiling the Qur’an and insulting the Prophet, upgrading such acts into capital offences. What began as colonial order management mutated into a tool to empower clerics, suppress dissent and enforce Sunni orthodoxy.
Reliable data is scarce but the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) records that between 1987–2024 at least 2,793 individuals were accused under blasphemy provisions, with 70–80 per cent of cases in Punjab province. In 2024 alone, 344 new cases were registered — the highest annual figure. CSJ also documented 104 extra-judicial killings between 1994–2024, demonstrating the lethal consequences of law and vigilante action. While minorities remain vulnerable, statistical trends now show that intra-Muslim accusations have surpassed those against non-Muslims and constitute the largest share of those accused of blasphemy.
More here.
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