Current Final

Category: National

  • ‘No lenient view permitted’: BZU teacher sentenced to death for ‘blasphemy’

    ‘No lenient view permitted’: BZU teacher sentenced to death for ‘blasphemy’

    A former university lecturer in Multan, who was booked on blasphemy charges and arrested by police on March 13, 2013, was on Saturday sentenced to death by a district and sessions court, Dawn reported.

    Formerly a visiting lecturer at the Department of English Literature of the Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU), Multan, Junaid Hafeez, according to Amnesty International, was charged with blasphemy over Facebook uploads.

    He was also in the process of getting a graduate degree in English Literature when he had been accused of blasphemy and arrested. The trial of the case had started in 2014.

    On Saturday, Additional Sessions Judge Kashif Qayyum sentenced Hafeez to death and imposed a Rs0.5 million fine under Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC); in case of default he will undergo further imprisonment of six months.

    He was also sentenced to life imprisonment under Section 295-B, and 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs100,000 under Section 295-A of the PPC.

    According to the court’s short judgement, “All the sentences shall run consecutively and the accused would not be entitled to the benefit of Section 382-B CrPC because in case of blasphemer, this court has got no circumstance for taking [a] lenient view and it is also not permitted in Islam.”

    Under Section 382-B of the Criminal Procedure Code, the period of detention of a prisoner has to be considered in the prison term when a person is convicted by a trial court.

    Hafeez has been lodged in the high-security ward number 2 of New Central Jail Multan.

    His previous lawyer, Rashid Rehman, was shot dead in May 2014 in his office.

    Hafeez’s parents had earlier this year appealed to former chief justice Asif Saeed Khosa to look into their son’s case. They sought justice for their son, fearing for his mental and physical health.

    They had said their son had been languishing in solitary confinement in a cell of the Central Jail, Multan, for the last six years on the false charge of blasphemy.

    “Due to transfer of many judges, delaying tactics of prosecution witnesses, and difficulties finding adequate legal counsel for the defence because of the sensitive nature of the case, our son continues to await justice in a fabricated case,” Junaid’s parents had said in a written appeal to the chief justice.

    Blasphemy is a hugely sensitive issue in Pakistan, with even unproven allegations often prompting mob violence. Anyone convicted, or even just accused, of insulting Islam, risks a violent and bloody death at the hands of vigilantes.

    Rights groups have said the blasphemy laws are routinely abused to seek vengeance and settle personal scores.

  • Cracks emerge among PML-N ranks as ‘leadership disobeys Nawaz’

    Cracks emerge among PML-N ranks as ‘leadership disobeys Nawaz’

    Amid reports of a rift between opposition parties as the Azadi March of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) to Islamabad continues, cracks are also emerging among ranks of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), The Current has learnt.

    According to sources, PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif’s orders were disobeyed by the Punjab leadership of his party on Wednesday as 70,000 people were not mobilised to welcome Fazl’s caravan in Lahore.

    The Current reached out to several PML-N leaders to confirm or deny what rumour had and on the condition of anonymity, one of them rejected the same.

    “Both MNAs and MPAs of the PML-N were in Lahore to receive Maulana’s caravan and they did. We even distributed food among his buses, which were over a thousand in number,” the PML-N leader added.

    “There were six different points in Lahore where our party members gathered to welcome and facilitate Maulana Fazl. Our workers gathered to welcome the caravan hours before its arrival.”

    When asked why the PML-N leadership was nowhere to be seen at the Lahore stage of the Azadi March as JUI-F leaders addressed a mammoth gathering, the PML-N leader said they were asked to come on stage at the last minute and that too by a junior party worker.

    “Not Maulana or any other JUI-F leader invited us on stage and we told them that we will come in an hour. However, later we were told that the caravan will not stop for us.”

    The PML-N leader also said that they are on their way from Lahore to Islamabad with a huge crowd and plan on holding a small rally in the federal capital even though their leadership has been told by the JUI-F that the Azadi March will commence tomorrow.

    When The Current reached out to other PML-N leaders for confirmation of the postponement, former National Assembly (NA) speaker Ayaz Sadiq said, “Akram Durrani Sahib called me today and said that Maulana will address Azadi March at 2 pm tomorrow after Friday prayers in Islamabad.”

  • Woman stands up against ‘rotten system’, demands justice for slain parents

    Woman stands up against ‘rotten system’, demands justice for slain parents

    • Nazo Shinwari, her brother in hiding after parents’ murders; journalist alleges facilitation of influential accused by police, others
    • Police says department will protect victims at all costs, working hard to bring culprits to justice
    • Jibran Nasir calls out HR Minister Shireen Mazari among other govt members over ‘incompetence’

    Challenging the system over its failure to serve justice, journalist Nazo Shinwari, whose parents were allegedly murdered by her stepbrother and uncle over a petty property dispute, has demanded that the culprits be taken to task.

    As per the details of the case, Nazo’s father Mobin Shinwari was shot dead outside his residence in Rawalpindi for legitimately transferring his property — that didn’t concern his stepson or brother’s family — to his second wife and Nazo’s mother, Sumera Safdar, at the time of their nikah over thirty years ago.

    “After approaching a court against the transfer and continuing to threaten my family over the years, on March 28, 2019, they killed my father so that they could force us into surrendering the property,” Nazo said while speaking to The Current.

    “But my courageous mother stood up against them. She started pursuing both the property and my father’s murder cases,” she added and alleged that it wasn’t later when the accused got her mother killed too.

    Sharing the details of the second murder, Nazo said that Sumera was forced to leave Rawalpindi and reach “their turf” — Peshawar — for the hearing of a bogus case registered against her, her son and brothers.

    “She was murdered on her way back from KP [Khyber Pakhtunkhwa] on August 17 in a drive-by shooting that also claimed her driver’s life,” she said, adding that her mother had written to the chief justice, prime minister, Punjab and KP chief ministers as well as top cops among other police officials concerned, but to no avail.

    “She demanded protection time and again, but no one batted an eye. Had they addressed her complaints and taken action, my mother would’ve been with us today,” Nazo said.

    “My brother, Shershah, and I are now in hiding because our lives are in danger. They also tried to poison my brother at a police station. They have sought pre-arrest bails and authorities are reluctant to act because the culprits are influential.”

    She also called out the police for its “reluctance to properly pursue the case in court on the pretext of a pending investigation” and Peshawar’s Lady Reading Hospital of “deliberately delaying” the issuance of her mother’s death certificate.

    ‘POLICE IN ACTION’:

    Meanwhile, Peshawar Operations Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Zahoor Babar Afridi has said that the police are working hard and the culprits will soon be brought to justice.

    “The Peshawar police are investigating the matter and the accused will be arrested at the earliest,” he said while speaking to a private media outlet and added that the vehicle used in Sumera’s killing had also been traced back to the nominated accused.

    Rawalpindi’s Potohar Division SP Syed Ali, on the other hand, said that justice will be served at all costs. “Nazo has become the plaintiff in her parents’ murder cases and they are being pursued by the police. We are trying our best to arrest the killers.”

    Speaking to The Current, rights activist and lawyer Jibran Nasir said that it is the state’s responsibility to provide security to its citizens. “However, in this case, the family was not provided any, despite repeated requests.”

    “They have even approached [Federal Minister for Human Rights] Dr Shireen Mazari, but no action has been taken by anyone, which speaks volumes of the authorities’ incompetence,” he said.

    Jibran also questioned the role played by the criminal justice system in Sumera’s killing.

    Repeated attempts were made to contact Dr Mazari and the police officials concerned, but they were unavailable.