ISLAMABAD: Chairman National Assembly standing committee on law, justice and human rights Mehmood Bashir Virk faced criticism at a seminar here on Monday.

Mr Virk, who belongs to the PML-N, was speaking as chief guest at a seminar “Radicalism: role of civil society and media” organised by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), Minority Rights Group (MRG) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.

“People who comment on cases of blasphemy should arrange security for themselves or refrain from commenting on such sensitive issues,” he told the participants. He said Pakistani society was liberal but some people tried to interfere in sensitive issues.

As Mr Virk spoke, most of the participants expressed their displeasure.

However, after the end of his speech, senior security analyst Ejaz Haider said he should be allowed to speak on behalf of the participants.

Mr Haider said though the subject of the seminar was not blasphemy, it was taken up by the chief guest, which showed the mindset of the people.

“The law of blasphemy was introduced by the British government but from 1947 to the regime of Ziaul Haq, not a single case of blasphemy was registered in the country. Ziaul Haq gave teeth to the law by introducing the death penalty for blasphemy. Though crime decreases with the enhancement of the punishment, cases of blasphemy started increasing after the amendment.”

He said he had investigated as many as 50 blasphemy cases and not a single of them was found correct. Most of them were allegations and registered to settle personal scores.

Mr Haider said mindset of people like Mr Virk had affected the society. “His remarks are like that of the police. When a woman is raped, instead of arresting the accused the police say her dress was objectionable.”

Executive Director SDPI Dr Abid Suleri while talking to Dawn said there should be the writ of the state and persons sitting in the treasury benches should not say that they are helpless.

“Every citizen who casts vote expects that he will be protected by the state which is a fundamental right. I believe that if justice is ensured for everyone, such kinds of issues will be resolved,” he said.

Zafarullah Khan, the head of the Centre for Civic Education, said it was the responsibility of the government to provide protection to the people.

“Not only freedom of expression has to be ensured but also freedom after expression should be ensured. Politicians in government should not comment like this,” he said.— A Reporter

Published in Dawn, May 27th, 2014