Islamabad:
The high court of the capital has ordered a government investigation into allegations according to which young people are trapped in online blasphemy affairs, following calls from hundreds of families.
There has been a peak in cases of young men, mainly arrested for committing blasphemy in WhatsApp groups since 2022. The rights defense groups and the police said that many were tried by private law firms, who use volunteers to travel Internet for offenders.
“The government will constitute a commission within 30 days,” said judge Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan, adding that the Commission is required to submit its conclusions within four months.
A report published by the National Commission led by the government for human rights in October of last year said that there were 767 people, mainly young men, in prison awaiting judgment for allegations of blasphemy.
“It is a huge struggle of hope and it is the first time that families have felt heard,” said lawyer Imaan Mazari, who represents the families of men and women arrested, of the court order.
“Young people have been falsely roped in cases of such sensitive nature that stigma will last forever even if they are acquitted,” she added.
A 2024 Punjab police report in the sudden peak in cases, which was disclosed to the media, noted that “a suspicious gang trapped young people in cases of blasphemy” and can be motivated by a financial gain.
The legal commission on the blasphemy Pakistan (LCBP) is the most active of the lawyers of lawyers who pursue young men in Pakistan. Sheraz Ahmad Farooqi, one of the leaders of the group, told AFP in October that “God had chosen them for this noble cause”.
In recent years, several young people have been sentenced and sentenced to death, although no execution has never been made for blasphemy in Pakistan.
“We will fully support the probe commission and are convinced that our voices will finally be listened to, our concerns will be heard and that the truth will be released,” said the parent of one of the accused, who asked not to be appointed because of the backlash, told AFP.
With AFP entrance
