Offences against religion.

AS has become our annual custom, yet another person accused of blasphemy was recently lynched; accosted by a deranged mob in Nankana Sahib, which dragged him out of a police station, pummelled the life out of him, and then attempted to set his body on fire before law enforcers found the guts to intervene. Last year, a teacher in D.I. Khan was fatally stabbed by her students, a handicapped man was forcibly drowned in Ghotki, and a person, reportedly with a mental illness, was snatched from police custody, hung by his neck to a tree, and stoned to death in Khanewal. All on similar suspicions. This is a sign: our brutalisation as a society is nearing completion.

It is a pity that the only time we think it necessary (or perhaps possible) to turn our attention to the prickly issue of blasphemy is whenever some hapless soul or another has found themselves killed in the most monstrous of manners - axed, shot, set ablaze, or cooked inside a brick kiln. By now, our response to these macabre instances has been finessed, standardised almost: the act itself is censured to varying degrees, a round of generalised condemnation follows, similar occurrences in the past are revisited, the word 'reform' is whispered (lest it ignite more trouble), and then we continue to bear witness to such tragedies, even as they recur with an astonishing increase in frequency.

A study conducted by CRSS sheds shocking light on the phenomenon. From 1947 to 1990, only three people were killed in blasphemy-related vigilantism. By 2021, this figure had jumped to 89. That is an increase of 2,866 per cent. Just as disquieting is the rise in the number of criminal complaints being processed. Till 1990, only 20 cases were registered, but by 2021, this number had leapfrogged to 701. That represents an increase of 3,405pc. In tandem has been an escalation in accusations, from a measly 17 till 1990, to a whopping 1,306 by 2021 - an increase of 7,528pc. This is staggering data, and should be a cause for deep unease for anyone who cares for the sanity of this polity.

What could cause such a sudden explosion of fiery allegations and fanatical murders? There are reasons aplenty, the most obvious being this: the 1990s were preceded immediately by the Zia regime and its politically coloured Islamisation project, which ushered in a sea change throughout our legal landscape (and hence, our social fabric). The most drastic alterations occurred in criminal law, that deeply sensitive realm where...