Blasphemy: Editor gets life

2003-07-09 13:15

Islamabad - A court in northwestern Pakistan sentenced an editor to a life term for publishing a blasphemous letter that insulted Islam, a news report said on Wednesday.

Sub-editor Munawar Mohsin was held responsible for the publication of a letter in the daily Frontier Post containing a derogatory remark about the Prophet of Islam, according to the newspaper Dawn.

Mohsin said it was a mistake caused by a computer glitch, and tried to shift responsibility to his news editor and computer supervisor, but Judge Sardar Irshad did not find them guilty.

Irshad ruled on the basis of confessional statement of Mohsin that he had selected the letter for publication, rejecting a late plea by the defence lawyer that his client was a drug addict and not in proper senses when he let it pass.

An Islamic law decreed by Pakistan's last military dictator, Zia ul-Haq, in the 1980s prescribed the maximum penalty of death for blasphemy.

Human rights activists in the country have been campaigning for the reform of the Islamic Hudood law which, in most cases, is abused to settle personal scores or to kick up religious frenzy.

A separate news story in Dawn said the Parliamentary Commission on Human Rights has formed several committees to review and to suggest improvements in "discriminatory laws", including the Hudood law. - Sapa-DPA

- SAPA