Asian rights body seeks UN intervention in Pak blasphemy cases

The Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) has urged the United Nations Committee on the International Convention Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD Committee) to intervene in the trial of minorities accused of blasphemy in Pakistans anti-terror courts.

New Delhi, Aug.8 : The Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) has urged the United Nations Committee on the International Convention Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD Committee) to intervene in the trial of minorities accused of blasphemy in Pakistan's anti-terror courts.

It said that the CERD Committee has taken strong exception to Islamabad's failure to submit its five periodic reports since January 1998, and has decided to consider the situation of Pakistan on August 14, 2007 without the Pakistan Government's report.

In its shadow report, "Pakistan: The Land of Religious Apartheid and Jackboot Justice - A report to the UN Committee Against Racism", submitted to the UN CERD Committee, the ACHR states that "discrimination based on the ethnic, linguistic or racial identities is rampant, but Pakistan recognises only religious minorities."

"The armed conflicts in Balochistan and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) show that Pakistan has miserably failed to subsume ethnic, linguistic and racial identities under the rubric ofslam," it added.

It further claimed that religious minorities have been systematically targeted under the blasphemy laws provided under the Pakistan Penal Code.

Though Christians, Hindus and Ahmadis constitute only slightly more than four percent of the total population of Pakistan, they have been disproportionate victims of the blasphemy laws.

It said that between January 1, 2007 and June 1, 2007, at least 25 persons, of whom 16 were Christians, were booked under Pakistan's blasphemy laws.

In 2006, out of 90 cases of blasphemy, 48 were registered with the police of whom 27 accused were Muslims, 10 Christians and 11 Ahmadis.

"The trial of blasphemy in anti-terror courts by the Government of Pakistan itself is an act of sacrilege," said Suhas Chakma, Director of the ACHR, at a news conference today.

"It is a crime for the Hindus to have land and beautiful daughters. Kidnapping, rape and forcible marriage of Hindu girls is a common practice. In case of arrest, the accused can get away by producing aertificate issued by any Muslim seminary that the kidnapped girls have voluntarily adopted Islam and the accused have married the girls," Chakma added.

He further claimed that ethnic minorities face systematic persecution.

"The Talibanisation of the FATA can also be attributed to the lack of any judicial and administrative reforms in the last 50 years," Chakma said.

ANI