Engineer religious scholar Mirza Muhammad Ali. Photo: File
ISLAMABAD:
The Islamabad High Court on Wednesday extended its order suspending the notice of the Council of Islamic Ideology finding engineer Muhammad Ali Mirza guilty of blasphemy till April 7 and sought the assistance of the Attorney General in the next hearing.
Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani heard a petition filed by Aslam Khaki challenging the counsel’s opinion against Mirza. Despite the court’s earlier directives, the attorney general did not appear in court.
Deputy Attorney General Usman Ghuman told the court that the Attorney General was unavailable due to prior commitments and proposed that an additional Attorney General could appear in his place. Justice Kayani rejected the request and insisted that the Attorney General be personally present, stressing that he had already asked him to assist the court.
The Deputy Attorney General then requested that a new date be set for the Attorney General’s appearance. The court accepted the request and adjourned the hearing to April 7.
Read: Court grants bail to engineer Muhammad Ali Mirza in blasphemy case
Mirza was initially arrested on August 27 by the Jhelum police under section 3 of maintenance of public order. He was later transferred to jail and later handed over to the Federal Investigation Agency after a blasphemy case was registered against him.
The FIR, filed at the Jhelum town police station, alleged that a video circulating online, initially uploaded on Mirza’s YouTube channel, contained blasphemous remarks against the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and misinterpretation of Surah al-Nisa. The complainant said the video was offensive and violated Pakistan’s blasphemy laws.
The case includes charges under Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code and Section 11 of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016. Section 295-C states that “whoever, whether spoken or written, or by visible representation, or by imputation, insinuation or insinuation, directly or indirectly, defiles the sacred name of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) shall be punished with death and liable to fine.” »
Read More: Blasphemy FIR filed against Engineer Mirza as Punjab Police denies custody
Article 11 of PECA deals with the preparation and dissemination of information inciting interfaith, sectarian or racial hatred and is punishable by up to seven years in prison and a fine.
Mirza is a well-known online personality with over three million subscribers on YouTube. He also runs the Quran-o-Sunnat Research Academy in Jhelum, which was sealed by the local authorities. No official reason was given for the closure.
He has faced similar allegations before. In May 2020, Mirza was charged with allegedly derogatory remarks against other religious scholars and was later released on bail. In 2023, he was again accused of blasphemy for comments about the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and his views on the Ahmadi community, but these charges were later dropped.
Blasphemy remains one of the most sensitive and controversial issues in Pakistan, with human rights groups repeatedly urging the government to prevent the misuse of the law for personal or political gain.
