ISLAMABAD, Jan 25: All Pakistan Minorities Alliance (APMA) Chairman Shahbaz Bhatti appealed to the chief justice of the Supreme Court to take suo motto action against the alarming misuse of the blasphemy law and demanded its repeal.

In a statement issued here on Thursday, Mr Bhatti strongly condemned the registration of blasphemy case against a Christian woman, Martha Bibi of Kasur.

He said that a blasphemy case had been registered against her, under Section 295C-PPC, earlier this month by the Changa Manga police, in Patoki tehsil, without any investigation or solid evidence. Even the victim has rejected the allegations.

He said that the blasphemy case against Bibi was baseless concocted and fabricated.

The APMA chief said that religious minorities were being roped in false cases, under the blasphemy law, and many were subjected to extra-judicial killing or were left to languish in prisons for years. He said families of victims were compelled to leave their homes due to threats, harassment and a sense of insecurity.

He said the law had became a tool in the hands of extremists, which they used to persecute, victimise and terrorise religious minorities and opponents.

He said religious extremists took the law into their own hands and did not even wait for the judicial verdict. He said that judgments of superior courts had proved that the blasphemy law was being ruthlessly abused for settling personal scores and used for religious persecution.

He said, “this law is a naked sword hanging on the heads of non-Muslims in Pakistan.”

Mr Bhatti emphasized that the blasphemy law violated Article 25 of the Constitution and was also against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The wording of the law was vague and open-ended, thus open to interpretation and abuse.

He said, “religious minorities respect all Holy Prophets and Holy Books; they can never commit acts that make their own lives miserable.”

He said that this law was hampering the efforts to promote interfaith harmony, national unity and dialogue among different faiths and encouraged religious bigotry, obscurantism and was strengthening religious extremists to indulge in violence in the name of religion.

He said the government should take concrete and practical steps to stop the misuse of the blasphemy law and that its existence and of other discriminatory laws were hurdles in making Pakistan an enlightened and moderate state.

The APMA chairman also demanded of the government to form a judicial commission to review pending cases pertaining to the blasphemy laws and release all innocent prisoners immediately.

He asked for the immediate release of Bibi and protection for her family.