The trial court’s decision to award death sentence to Sawan Masih of Lahore’s Joseph Colony case must have caused disappointment to all defenders of justice in the country -- it has certainly sharpened the feelings of fear and despair among members of religious minorities. If the government fails to take note of this situation and delays damage control measures it will not only attract blame for ignoring its duty to one of the most vulnerable sections of the population, it will also strengthen the challenges to the state’s democratic premises and the country’s social fabric.

The matter of Sawan Masih is before the high court now and he may well join the list of blasphemy accused whose death sentence has been overturned by superior courts. Yet he is likely to stay in prison for a long time. Like Aasia Bibi for example, who was awarded death sentence by the trial court in December 2009, has been in jail since her arrest in June that year, and the high court started hearing her appeal only a week ago. One of the hazards the blasphemy accused face is the near impossibility of their being released on bail during trial or appeal proceedings -- and this is something that needs to be looked into.

The Sawan Masih case has special features his community cannot ignore. The trouble arose during a drinking brawl between two economically hard-up friends. The first reaction of the local community was to ignore the matter and that caused a long delay in the filing of the FIR. The situation deteriorated when outsiders jumped into the fray and the police, instead of protecting the Christians residing in the Joseph Colony, told them to leave their homes. More than a hundred houses were burnt down. Since the rioters, arsonists and their collaborators in the police have not been made to pay for their crimes, the conviction of Sawan Masih raises critical questions about the capacity of the executive and the judicial organs of the state to do justice to all people even-handedly, especially between members of the majority and minority communities.

Then there have been other cases that have caused much public anxiety. Mohammad Ashraf Gola, a former chairman of the municipal committee of Pind Dadan Khan in Jhelum district, was acquitted of the blasphemy charge by the Lahore High Court. A few days later, he was gunned down by men the police quite casually describes as ‘unidentified’!

In the same district, an old man, Mohammad Afzal Babu, has been battling since 2008 to repel a blasphemy accusation. His family has been receiving threats for pursuing the case, and all requests to the police for necessary protection have been in vain.

These circumstances have convinced the non-Muslim communities that any one of their members is irretrievably damned the moment he is branded as a blasphemer, however tenuous the charge. He is not secure in police custody and he faces serious threats to life in transit to court and on court premises. He has no security after acquittal either. The threat extends to his whole family. For instance, Aasia Bibi’s husband and children have been moving from one place to another and have to conceal their whereabouts. Similarly, lawyers are afraid of defending persons charged with blasphemy and some of the accused in recent times have had severe difficulties in engaging any counsel, to say nothing of a counsel of their first choice.

The Christian community claims that the fear of suddenly being strapped with a blasphemy charge has forced thousands of its members to emigrate to safer places. The figures that they quote are much too large to be glossed over. The officials might argue that these figures are exaggerated or that the motivation for emigration is not always fear of prosecution for an offence relating to religion, but regardless of unwarranted semantics the government has a duty to examine these complaints, order a thorough probe by an independent tribunal, and devise a plan to meet the poor citizens’ fears, for most of those targeted belong to economically weaker sections of society.

Besides taking steps to prevent Pakistani citizens from abandoning their homeland out of fear of persecution or discrimination on religious grounds, it is essential to eliminate the causes of the minority communities’ apprehensions. The environment of fear deprives the aggrieved communities, and they now include some Muslim sects too, of their fundamental rights to peace and security of life and liberty. They cannot lead normal lives, they cannot realise themselves, and they cannot make their due contribution to the progress and welfare of their fellow beings.

A recent development that has contributed to abuse of the blasphemy provision of the Penal Code is an organised campaign to find blasphemers even if they are not easily visible. Quite a few groups and individuals have taken up institution of blasphemy cases as a profession. A common tactic is to approach a target and engage him in a discussion on religious matters and construe any narration or stray remark as blasphemy. While there is only one PPC provision on blasphemy all sections of the penal code’s chapter on Offences Relating to Religion (sections 295 to 298-C) are referred to as blasphemy laws. The cases registered under sections other than 295-C are publicised as more grave offences than they actually are and the Muslims are presented with visions of an extraordinary barrage of systematic attacks on their faith.

That abuse of blasphemy law fuels hatred against the minorities and leads to a variety of excesses against them (including attacks on Hindu temples, target killing of Ahmedis and Shias) is quite evident. In fact the narrative around blasphemy has the effect of uniting the various religious factions despite their doctrinal differences on a common anti-minorities platform. This phalanx receives strength from the state’s failure to punish hate-preaching and prosecute those who have been found to have started concocted and false cases against their victims.

Unless the state realises the damage it is doing to itself and the citizens by its flabbiness in standing up against the purveyors of hate and violence and starts reining in the zealots of an indefensible cause, a large number of Pakistani could fall victim to the wave of intolerance. Although several successive governments have failed to implement their plans to ensure that the procedure followed in blasphemy cases offers due protection to the innocent, the matter needs to the taken up again and the method of pre-arrest probing of the allegations of blasphemy made more effective and mandatory. Additionally, it is time to start treating hate-speech as a cognizable offence for it constitutes mischief more reprehensible than murder.