ISLAMABAD: Former human rights minister and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) core committee member Shireen Mazari has written to special rapporteurs of the UN, calling for their intervention to cease the Pakistani government’s “misuse of the blasphemy law” against Imran Khan and senior PTI leaders.
It stated that Pakistan had been engulfed in a political crisis ever since the Imran Khan-led government was ousted in the aftermath of a “regime change scheme” and replaced with a government led by Shehbaz Sharif, who has been named in “multiple money-laundering and corruption cases and is out on bail”.
In March, Mazari recalled, Imran’s government had concluded in a cabinet meeting that there had been a “US-backed regime-change conspiracy” against the former prime minister assisted by the “establishment” and “opposition political parties”.
“This conclusion was premised upon the content of a cipher message received from Pakistan’s envoy in Washington DC detailing a formal meeting between Mr Donald Lu of the State Department with the envoy and 3 other members of the embassy along with note-takers on both sides.”
The cipher message, the letter stated, reflected the anger of the US over Imran’s visit to Russia just as the Ukrainian military conflict was about to begin. It continued that if the no-trust motion against Imran succeeded, “all would be forgiven”.
Mazari then mentioned that the events that followed included the submission of the no-confidence motion, the National Assembly (NA) deputy speaker’s rejection of the motion and the Supreme Court’s intervention in the matter which ultimately resulted in Imran’s ouster.
“Since then, there has been a groundswell of public anger reflected in huge rallies by Imran Khan’s parties across the country as he leads a movement for the restoration of democracy and sovereignty of Pakistan,” the letter said.
However, it added, the government, “backed by the establishment”, had responded with repressive measures.
Subsequently, the PTI leader drew UNHCR’s attention to what she called three major human rights violations conducted against Imran.
“One: A complete blackout of media coverage by state-owned media as well as almost all private channels through a carrot (advertisements) and stick (establishment). In this connection, the government-controlled PTCL, which provides cable connections to cable operators, has denied this access to any private channel seen covering Khan’s massive rallies.”
The second violation highlighted by Mazari was the registration of blasphemy cases against Imran and PTI leaders in connection with the Masjid-e-Nabwi incident where Shehbaz Sharif and his federal ministers were heckled by a crowd of Pakistani pilgrims.
She argued that it was not a planned incident as similar treatment had taken place with opposition members at other places as well. “To use the Madina incident as an excuse to file charges of blasphemy means endangering lives of Imran and party’s leadership,” Mazari wrote.
“It also provides for making immediate arrests and one member of the NA from the PTI-allied party was immediately taken into custody on arrival at Islamabad airport on blasphemy charges.”
The letter added that even though an FIR was not registered, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah had warned Imran and his supporters of arrests.
Subsequently, Mazari requested the United Nations Special Procedures mechanism to intervene with the Pakistani government to: immediately cease the misuse of the blasphemy law against political opponents, stop media censorship, and stop denying the right to peaceful protest through repressive measures and blocking of protest sites.
 core committee member Shireen Mazari has written to special ra){kind=link}