ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday accepted a bail plea of a sanitary worker employed with the Lahore Waste Management Company, who has been facing a blasphemy charge since April 2021.

A Supreme Court bench consisting of Justice Qazi Faez Isa and Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah granted bail to Salamat Mansha Masih, subject to furnishing the bail bond in the sum of Rs50,000 while hearing an appeal against the June 2022 Lahore High Court (LHC) rejection of a similar bail plea.

Salamat Masih has been confined at the Lahore district jail since Jan 4, 2021.

While accepting the plea the court also observed that the State should exercise extreme caution and care while dealing with cases falling within the category of blasphemy and should also extend complete protection to the accused until the charges levelled stand proved.

Salamat Masih has been behind bars since Jan 2021

Justice Isa also regretted about the tendency of levelling accusations and said every second person raise fingers and blamed others of insulting the religion just like that without realizing that this was not a simple or ordinary offence but carries capital punishment.

Representing the accused, Advocate Abdul Hameed Khan Rana recalled how four college students accused Haroon Ayub and Salamat Masih, who were present in the Model Town Park Lahore at that time, of committing blasphemy while preaching Christianity and also gifted a book in Urdu language that according to the complainant contains sacrilegious matter.

But the counsel argued that the book was related to the Holy Bible and did not contain any sacrilegious matter against any religion – a fact also conceded by the concerned Lahore senior police officer from the prosecution side.

The counsel stated that the prosecution failed to furnish convincing evidence to connect the accused with the allegations of blasphemy. He argued that the FIR was registered against his client after a delay of eight hours.

The court expressed the surprise that the incident took place in the park but no one including the guard was made a witness to it and also cited Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah who had stated that people of all sects would be free in Pakistan to practice and follow their faith independently.

Justice Isa observed, “We should avoid further polarisation of the society which already stands fractured and divided in the name of religion. We cannot further afford tragedy like East Pakistan.”

At one point, a bench member remarked why Muslims did not opt for professions like this when cleanliness was a strong part of their faith. “We should be thankful to the Christian brothers for at least they clean up for us,” he said.

While deciding the case of Aasia Bibi, a Christian lady who had faced death sentence on charges of blasphemy, the Supreme Court on Oct 31, 2018 held it was not for the individuals or a gathering (mob) to decide whether any act falling within the purview of Section 295-C has been committed or not, because it was the court’s mandate to make such decisions after conducting a fully qualified trial on the basis of credible evidence.

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2022