Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz on Thursday condemned lynch mobs that take law into their own hands, calling on faith leaders to advocate for police action against individuals accused of blasphemy.
“A lot of times, these allegations are used to settle scores,” she said at an Ittehad Bainul Muslimeen conference in Lahore. The body, which aims to foster religious harmony and tolerance, deliberated on the misuse of blasphemy allegations, which have led to multiple murders in recent months. Last month alone, a Muslim man was lynched by a mob in Swat while a Christian man in Sargodha was rescued by police but succumbed to his injuries in hospital. The issue has attracted the notice of lawmakers, with the National Assembly adopting a resolution condemning mob violence, especially when linked to blasphemy allegations.
“If a mob gathers and takes the law into its own hands without determining who did what, then no one would be spared,” warned Maryam, claiming there had been a significant increase in incidents of alleged desecration of the holy Quran and the real cause must be determined. Only speedy police action, she stressed, could determine the veracity of such allegations and punish any real culprits.
“No matter what happens, we must not allow [anyone] to take the law into their hands, set up courts in their streets and areas, and issue sentences and fatwas,” she said, calling on all segments of society to unite in tackling the issue. She lamented that rather than waiting for police to investigate such allegations, people resorted to making announcements and gathering mobs that commit arson, vandalism, and murder.
Denouncing the trend of crimes being turned into religious issues, she said that it was only after someone’s crime was proven that they could be punished for their actions. She referred to an incident from earlier this year when an imam was found guilty of raping a minor but his supporters had turned it into a religious issue after police arrested him. Numerous “fatwas were issued” against the chief minister on social media after the police action, she regretted.
“The biggest criminal is the one who is the cause of defaming a religion and leaving a mark on it,” she emphasized.
According to the chief minister, authorities had gotten 50,000 social media accounts blocked for alleged blasphemy, recalling her party’s leaders were similarly targeted “to settle political scores.” She recalled an assassination attempt on Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal in 2018, when he was shot by a supporter of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan for alleged blasphemy. “He [Iqbal] belongs to a very religious family,” she said, thanking God for saving his life.