Asia Bibi isn't the first victim of Pakistan's outrageous blasphemy laws – yet the government refuses to take real action

Thousands are protesting in Pakistan today, blocking roads in major cities and pelting police with stones, after the supreme court overturned the death sentence of Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian farm labourer convicted of blasphemy.

At the forefront of the rioting are the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), a political party made up of religious extremists dedicated to punishing blasphemy. Reacting to the verdict, the TLP called for the judges to be killed and for army officers to commit mutiny against the army chief.

The TLP and its ilk have enjoyed a lot of leeway from consecutive governments when it comes to inflammatory statements and protests, but this might have been a step too far.

In an ordeal that lasted for eight long years, many of which she spent in solitary confinement, Asia Bibi was a victim of religious bigotry, falsely accused of insulting the Prophet Muhammad when she had refused to convert to Islam.

In a furious admonishment of the veracity of some of the evidence provided by the prosecution, which Justice Asif Saeed Khosa described as “not only an afterthought but nothing short of concoction incarnate”. He wrote, “Blasphemy is a serious offence but the insult of the appellant’s [Asia Bibi] religion and religious sensibilities by the complainant party and then mixing truth with falsehood in the name of the Holy Prophet Muhammad was also not short of being blasphemous.”

It’s not uncommon for evidence to be fabricated in order to frame someone for blasphemy. According to Amnesty International, blasphemy laws in Pakistan “have been used to target religious minorities, pursue personal vendettas, and carry out vigilante violence. On the basis of little or no evidence, the accused will struggle to establish their innocence while angry and violent mobs seek to intimidate the police, witnesses, prosecutors, lawyers and judges.”

In 2013, a brilliant and gifted academic, Junaid Hafeez, a Fulbright Scholar and formerly a visiting faculty member at Bahauddin Zakariya University in Multan, was arrested for blasphemy based on possibly doctored printouts of materials that had been attributed to him. Some of the witnesses produced before the court could neither pinpoint any blasphemous content they claimed he was guilty of supporting, nor read or write in English, the language of the offending text.

Hafeez still languishes in jail. His first lawyer, Rashid Rehman, who also happened to be the local organiser of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, was shot dead in his office for simply taking his case.

While the accused are afforded some semblance of protection in custody, unfortunately their lawyers and supporters often are not. Speaking out in favour of those accused of blasphemy in Pakistan or publicly displaying solidarity is extremely dangerous.

In 2011, Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab, was shot dead by his own bodyguard after he lobbied for Bibi to receive a presidential pardon and advocated for the reformation of blasphemy laws.

Just two months later, Shahbaz Bhatti, a Christian, and Pakistan’s religious minorities minister, was also killed for speaking out against the blasphemy law.

Proponents of the blasphemy laws, including Prime Minister Imran Khan, claim that they are needed to deter angry mobs from taking matters into their own hands. They argue that it isn’t the laws that are the problem, but the abuse of such laws.

However, last month, when given the opportunity to pass a law for harsher punishments for those guilty of levelling false blasphemy accusations, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf​ led government seemingly backtracked on its commitment. While they were duly lambasted by progressive voices on social media, the general public welcomed this development.

Prime Minister Khan has rebuked the TLP for exploiting religious sentiments for political gain, sending a warning to protesters that the state will carry out its duty to safeguard people of the country if the protesters continued to clash against the state.

However, the very next day, interior minister Shehryar Khan Afridi​ informed the national assembly that the government was in talks with the various religious and political parties protesting the supreme court decision.

While it is reassuring that he declared that there wouldn’t be any compromise on the rule of law, the fact that stricter action has still not been taken against those individuals publicly making death threats is, sadly, a familiar story.

Unfortunately, with such a volatile environment, it is clear that despite being innocent, Asia Bibi and her family will probably never be safe in Pakistan. Like Malala Yousafzai, they will most likely be relocated abroad, perhaps with new identities.

However, one of the protesters’ demands is that Asia Bibi’s name be put on the exit control list and she not be allowed to leave the country.

Debates around blasphemy laws in Pakistan garner the same heightened emotions as those about the second amendment do in the most conservative of states in the US. Even the most basic of common sense reforms are treated with suspicion and hostility by a very large and vocal segment of the population.

The argument for maintaining blasphemy laws is also undermined by the fact that even those found innocent in a court of law are often not safe, as demonstrated by the mass protests and riots taking place across the country in the aftermath of the supreme court ruling. It seems that religious extremists will only ever be satisfied with a pronouncement of guilt.

In 2010, two Christian brothers were shot dead outside a courthouse after rumours spread that the police were going to clear them of blasphemy charges.

The government needs to learn that there is no appeasing bloodthirsty fanatics because their demands are never rooted in genuine need or any semblance of logic.

The leadership of the TLP derives its power from the appearance of being untouchable. The government should have arrested them immediately once they broke the law and threatened physical harm.

While there is still a long way to go, Pakistan can take some comfort in incremental progress. The bravery of Asia Bibi, her lawyers, as well as the supreme court justices, especially Justice Khosa, who could have delayed the verdict until his retirement, but instead wrote a brilliant and historic additional note, needs to be celebrated.

The verdict should be made easily accessible to the masses in Urdu and be made essential reading at all relevant educational institutes.

The government needs to move on from empty rhetoric and take immediate action against those religious and political groups threatening violence and causing damage to public property. Only then will a message be sent out loud and clear that such behaviour will not be tolerated any longer in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.