Popular TV Show the Latest Victim of Pakistan’s Blasphemy Law
With several Christians on trial awaiting potential death sentences for allegedly committing blasphemy, tensions are increasingly high across the nation with a record-breaking amount of blasphemy charges being waged against both non-Muslims and Muslims alike.
Commonly known as the blasphemy law, Pakistan’s Penal Code Section 295C’s death penalty went into effect in 1986 for the “use of derogatory remarks in respect of the [Islam’s] Holy Prophet.” In 1990, the Federal Shari’ah Court ruled that the penalty should be a mandatory death sentence, with no right to a pardon.
May is especially unique with regards to this law, because never before has it caused so much upheaval as has been witnessed this month.
On Saturday, May 17, three cases of blasphemy were registered in different parts of the country. The first was against a small group of Jehovah’s Witnesses arrested for handing out their organization Watchtower leaflets; the second was against a 20-year-old Muslim youth for allegedly setting the Quran—Islam’s sacred book—on fire; the third was against Pakistan’s biggest media tycoon, Mir Shakeel-ur-Rehman, a morning show host, a film actress and the actress’ husband for allegedly airing a show with blasphemous content on the nation’s Geo TV morning show titled Utho Jago Pakistan (Get up, Wake up, Pakistan).
The four Jehovah Witnesses—Javed Younus, his wife, Nazia Javed, Sri Lankan national Carol David and Rose Marry—were arrested for distributing Watchtower outreach leaflets in a Christian colony in Mirpurkhas.










