Its words state that anyone who, by words, writing, speech, pictures, or visible representation, directly or indirectly defiles the name of Islamic prophet Muhammad shall be punished with death, or life imprisonment, and a fine.

The courts have declared it a divine law and reduced the punishment to death only. In 1991, the Federal Shariah Court’s verdict removed the option of life imprisonment. The crime is now unpardonable. This law is used as a weapon for personal vendettas and against religious minorities especially against Christians. The facts also point in the same direction.

Since 1986, cases of blasphemy and desecration of religion have increased dramatically. This law disproportionately targets religious minorities, even though they constitute only three percent of Pakistan’s total population. People also frequently use it to settle personal enmities.

As soon as false allegation is made, the accused is murdered outside the court and the entire area erupts into riots. Mosques’ loudspeakers blare announcements urging, “Come and save the honour of Muhammad.”  

For example, in 2023 in Jaranwala’s Christian colony, as soon as a false allegation of Quran desecration was leveled, more than six thousand enraged Muslims set fire to hundreds of Christian homes and several churches.

Similarly, in 2013 in Lahore’s Joseph Colony, when a false blasphemy accusation was made against a Christian man, more than two thousand people burned dozens of Christian homes to ashes.

In 2009 in Gojra (Toba Tek Singh district), on the occasion of a wedding, a false allegation of Quran desecration led a violent mob to attack a Christian settlement, killing eight Christians — including four women, a seven-year-old child named Musa, and others — while nearly a hundred homes were torched.

In 1997 in Shanti Nagar (Khanewal), thousands of Muslims attacked a Christian village, burning more than seven hundred homes, twelve churches, and thousands of Bibles, leaving thousands of Christians homeless.