Abstract
Blasphemy in Pakistan is not merely a legal offense—it is an allegation that can ignite a mob. For decades, the country’s blasphemy laws have been the subject of international scrutiny, particularly as they intersect with civil society and fuel the rise of extrajudicial violence perpetrated under a collective mob-justice mentality. The killing of Tahir Ahmed Naseem, a fifty-seven-year-old American citizen, shot in a courtroom while awaiting trial on blasphemy charges, is not an anomaly but a chilling illustration of a system where an accusation alone can become a death sentence.
The continued existence of these blasphemy laws has entrenched a culture of vigilantism in Pakistan, and the State’s failure to amend them, or to shield the accused from private actors who assume the roles of judge, jury, and executioner, stands in stark violation of Pakistan’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (“ICCPR”). Religious minorities feel this danger most acutely. The Ahmadi community, already stripped of its Islamic identity by constitutional decree, faces escalating persecution as blasphemy allegations become both a weapon and a warning.
These laws do more than suppress dissent: they embolden the public to preempt the courts, carrying out lynchings that presume guilt and deny the accused any semblance of due process. The institutional failure to protect the religious minority groups targeted by these laws, and the parallel lack of accountability when members of those communities are publicly executed, constitutes a serious and urgent human rights crisis that Pakistan must confront.
Repeal is the most urgent solution—one long urged by human rights advocates—but even absent full repeal, Pakistan must take meaningful steps to protect those accused. This includes imposing real accountability on vigilante actors and investing in educational and social reforms that challenge the intolerance driving such violence. Only then can individuals like Naseem hope that their fate rests in the hands of a court of law rather than an inflamed crowd whose actions too often pass without consequence in a state that, through its silence, seems to exalt them.
First Page
61
Recommended Citation
Natasha
Ali
Between Penal Code and Mob Justice: Pakistan's Violations of the ICCPR Through Blasphemy-Driven Violence,
22
Loy. U. Chi. Int'l L. Rev.
61
().
Available at:
https://lawecommons.luc.edu/lucilr/vol22/iss1/4