I beg your pardon

The person who coined the adage “sticks and stones may break my bones but mere words will not harm me” was obviously not from Pakistan. Because in Pakistan, mere words can not only harm you, they can kill you!

I am of course talking about the case of Aasia Bibi, a Christian mother who was convicted by the Sheikhupura District Court for blasphemy and sentenced to death. She was charged under a certain blasphemy law existing in Pakistan, after an altercation with fellow farm workers who refused to drink water she had touched, saying that the water was “unclean” because she was Christian. Aasia Bibi had apparently made some derogatory remarks about Prophet Muhammad in retaliation.

In any country with race, religious and ethnic diversity, legal restraints are somewhat justifiable for the greater good of society, i.e. to maintain peace and harmony amid the diversity. If everyone is allowed to say anything about any race, religion or ethnicity with no holds barred, the eventuality is surely chaos, mayhem and anarchy.

I do not have a problem with this so-called ‘blasphemy law’ itself. What I do have a problem with is that a group of lawyers in Pakistan petitioned the Lahore High Court in Punjab not to allow the President of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari to pardon Aasia Bibi while her case was pending in the courts.

I understand that Pakistan is a ‘democratic parliamentary federal republic’. I have no idea what that is. But from my limited understanding of the various political systems in existence, the President is the Head of State and is given certain privileges peculiar to the President alone. This usually includes the power to pardon a person convicted of a crime.

I do not know the legal system in Pakistan in detail, but if the power to pardon is an exclusive privilege of the President, then surely the Lahore High Court cannot, and should not, have the power to override that privilege. To me, this screams of a case of separation of powers gone horribly wrong.

The Lahore High Court should have thought about the repercussions of its decisions. I wonder if the Lahore High Court, or for that matter, the group of lawyers who petitioned the Lahore High Court, took into consideration that the next time around, it may be a Muslim who is convicted of this ‘blasphemy law’ seeking clemency from the President. I wonder if they will be just as zealous, or suddenly develop new found mercy for a fellow Muslim.

At the end of the day, isn’t it God’s duty to judge the actions of man?