The Associated Press (AP) reported that a Pakistani court sentenced a 22-year-old student to death and gave a teenager life in prison on Monday under the country’s blasphemy laws. The 22-year-old student’s lawyer, Aslam Gujar, told the AP that Junaid Munir had been sentenced to death last week. The charges come as a result of [...]
Search Results for: pakistan blasphemy
Pakistan rejects US State Department inclusion in religious freedom concern list
Pakistan rejected Monday its designation as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) by the United States State Department over religious freedom concerns in the South Asian country. The US State Department designated Pakistan as a CPC on January 4 following a recommendation from the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). The Pakistan Ministry of [...]
Pakistan dispatch: Jaranwala vandalism attacks spotlight controversial blasphemy laws
Law students and law graduates in Pakistan are reporting for JURIST on events in that country impacting its legal system. Izhar Ahmed Khan is a 2022 LL.B. graduate of the Pakistan College of Law (University of London International Program). He files this from Lahore. Last week Pakistan witnessed yet another tragic incident in which an [...]
Pakistan arrests two Christians on blasphemy charges following religious unrest
A Pakistan spokesperson announced the arrest of two Christian brothers for blasphemy Friday, according to Reuters. The two were accused of ripping pages from the Quran. Chapter XV of Pakistan’s Penal Code outlines several different forms of blasphemy against Islam. These criminalize conduct such as making derogatory remarks about Muhammad or the desecration of the [...]
Pakistan Supreme Court refuses to stay former PM Imran Khan corruption case
The Supreme Court of Pakistan, on Wednesday, rejected former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s request to halt his prosecution in a case regarding wealth concealment after selling state gifts. Khan’s attorney dismissed the allegations insulating that the justices are “rushing” the case. The Election Commission disqualified Khan on October 2022, from holding public office for 5 [...]
Law students and law graduates in Pakistan are reporting for JURIST on events in that country impacting its legal system. Mashal Asim Khan is an LLB student in the University of London External Programme at The Institute of Legal Studies (TILS). She files this from Islamabad. On Thursday last week, July 20th, there was yet [...]
American author Edward Bellamy once described history as a cyclical process that “returned to the point of beginning”, claiming “the idea of indefinite progress in a right line was a chimera of the imagination, with no analog in nature.” Unfortunately, this perfectly encapsulates the current state of affairs in Pakistan. Politics in Pakistan seem to [...]
Imran Khan and the Weaponization of Litigation by Pakistan’s Elite
Civil action and criminal prosecution are the two great substitutes invented by law to replace revenge, a deeply wired instinct among humans expressed in a Mesopotamian maxim, an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. In Pakistan, most ironically, civil litigation and criminal prosecution have become the revenge instrument, particularly among ruling elites fighting [...]
Law students and law graduates from Pakistan are reporting for JURIST on events in that country impacting its legal system. Here, Eisha Chaudhry, a law student from Islamabad pursuing her LL.B. program at the University of London, reflects on former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s remarks last weekend at a mass rally in Rawalpindi at the [...]
Pakistan dispatch: persecution of religious minorities continues under current blasphemy law
Law students and law graduates in Pakistan are reporting for JURIST on events in that country impacting its legal system. University of London law graduate Mariyam Taher Qayyum files this dispatch from Islamabad. Religious extremism is on the rise once again in Pakistan, a country that is persistently condemned for its disregard for human rights. The [...]