Christians, who constitute less than 2% of Pakistan’s population, make up roughly a quarter of all those accused under the blasphemy laws….reports Asian Lite News
As Pakistan prepares to host a high-level European Union monitoring mission on November 24, the country continues to face intense scrutiny over its human rights record—particularly its harsh blasphemy laws, which have led to hundreds of arrests and widespread persecution of religious minorities.
According to reporting cited by The European Conservative, more than a hundred individuals remain imprisoned on blasphemy charges, with Christians disproportionately affected.
Blasphemy in Pakistan is officially punishable by death, and the past decade has witnessed a disturbing rise in mob violence, where vigilantes have murdered dozens of people merely on the basis of accusations. Among the most recent cases is that of 49-year-old Nadeem Masih, a blind Christian arrested after a Muslim colleague accused him of insulting Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.
As reported by Christian Daily International–Morning Star News and relayed by The European Conservative, Masih’s mother, nearly 80-year-old Martha Yousaf, explained that he had long faced harassment from Muslim co-workers—ranging from extortion to verbal abuse—before being handed over to police. Masih was charged under Section 295-C, a provision mandating the death penalty for allegedly insulting the Prophet. Yousaf recounted that when she first visited him in jail, he broke down, revealing that police had beaten him into making a false confession.
Christians, who constitute less than 2% of Pakistan’s population, make up roughly a quarter of all those accused under the blasphemy laws. Another recent example is that of 48-year-old Rasheed Masih, a Christian with mental health challenges arrested on blasphemy, sedition, and terrorism charges. His family insists he was targeted after raising concerns about corruption among Muslim colleagues and refusing their attempts to convert him to Islam.
In an especially tragic incident highlighted by The European Conservative, Pastor Zafar Bhatti—arrested in 2012 and wrongfully convicted of sending blasphemous text messages—was finally acquitted after 13 years, only to die two days after his release. Bhatti had spent years battling diabetes and heart disease while imprisoned, and his sentence had even been upgraded to the death penalty in 2022 before being overturned in October this year.
The severity of Pakistan’s blasphemy regime has intensified. In 2023, the National Assembly expanded the existing laws to include harsher punishments for insulting companions of the Prophet—a move widely criticised by human rights monitors. Pakistan now holds the world’s second-strictest blasphemy laws after Iran. Courts continue to hand out death sentences, including a recent ruling in Rawalpindi where four men were condemned to hang for allegedly posting sacrilegious materials online.
Extrajudicial violence remains rampant. The 2023 attacks in Jaranwala, during which mobs destroyed churches and Christian homes over blasphemy rumours, marked one of the worst assaults on the community in years. Yet hopes for justice faded when the Lahore High Court refused petitions for a judicial inquiry. More recently, mobs have killed elderly Christians and even dragged a tourist from a police station before setting his body alight.
These developments unfold as the EU’s monitoring mission prepares to assess Pakistan’s adherence to the conditions of the GSP+ trade mechanism, under which it enjoys preferential access to European markets. The delegation will evaluate compliance with 27 international conventions covering labour rights, good governance, and human rights. As The European Conservative notes, the EU would be prudent to scrutinise Pakistan’s record on religious freedom—particularly its ongoing abuses linked to blasphemy accusations—before deciding whether Islamabad remains eligible for significant tariff and trade benefits.
