While the court was quick to convict Sawan Masih for blasphemy, the case against the men who burned down Joseph colony is proceeding at a snail's pace.

It started with an accusation and ended in arson; on March 9, 2013, two churches and around 200 houses in Lahore’s Joseph Colony were set ablaze by a mob of hundreds of people over an alleged act of blasphemy committed by one Sawan Masih.

Masih, a billiard centre owner, was accused by his friend Imran Shahid of derogatory remarks against Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Soon afterwards a mob surrounded the locality, where the police had already enforced an evacuation the previous night, and burnt all the houses except for five or six which somehow did not catch fire. However, these were looted and whatever few valuables were present were taken away. After the incident, two cases were launched, one against Sawan Masih and the other against about 100 people, including Imran Shahid, for burning Joseph Colony.

On March 27, the case was specially heard at Kot Lakhpat jail due to security constraints by an additional district and sessions judge, who awarded the death sentence to Sawan Masih.

Four days later, Naeem Shakir, the counsel for Masih, filed an appeal against the verdict before the Lahore High Court.

He believes there are many loopholes in the case and is confident that the High Court would set aside the verdict against his client. He said that blasphemy provisions were not a part of the initial FIR. “On March 13, four days after the alleged incident, during the suo motu hearing of the burning of Joseph Colony, the then Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry reprimanded the police high-ups as the FIR was based on an allegation and did not show any evidence of blasphemy,” he said. On March 15, the SSP investigation asked the complainant, Imran Shahid, to reproduce the exact words allegedly used by Sawan Masih while two prosecution witnesses were also added.

“There was inordinate delay of 33 hours in registration of the first FIR which itself carries only a vague allegation. They inducted the remarks of alleged blasphemy eight days after the incident which casts enough doubts over the complainant’s claim,” said Masih’s counsel.

“According to the law, supplementary statements can neither be equated to nor treated as part of the FIR,” he said, adding that the prosecution had not established any motive that could have prompted Masih to utter derogatory remarks as the Supreme Court (SC) had pointed out in the case of Ayub Masih, another blasphemy accused. Quoting the SC in Ayub Masih’s trial, he said such an incident needed more ground to suggest that the derogatory remarks were either made as a result of arguments, controversy, a discussion or a wrangle; or that the accused was fond of delivering religious sermons.

Shakir said that the SC, in such cases, time and again asked for observing caution and gave directions to be followed.

To hold a probe, he said, there should be two senior police officers with enough knowledge of Islamic law and they should also seek help of two Islamic scholars well-versed in Fiqh. Besides, Islamic provisions of law made it necessary that the prosecution witnesses should be pious and of sound character while, in this case, the main witnesses were themselves facing trial for burning down the whole colony. He said the court had ignored all these directions.

The prosecution also did not provide any motive while the defence had established motives with witnesses, he said. “Joseph Colony is prime real estate, surrounded by steel warehouses and factory units, and the allegation was a conspiracy hatched by businessmen with the help of clerics and police to drive the Christian population out of the area,” says Shakir adding that this was proved by the systematic burning of almost the entire colony.

Shakir also pointed out that the judge had ignored the statement of Masih who said: “I have deep respect for Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). My own belief does not allow me to commit blasphemy of any Prophet. No such incident took place. I have been involved in this totally false case due to conspiracy and the complainant has been used as a tool. I cannot think of uttering any word that may cause disrespect of the Prophet. I am innocent. This case is false and concocted due to ulterior motives. I hold the Prophet in high esteem and can neither think nor dare to say anything against him.” Instead, Shakir says the Judge focused on the March 15 statement around which the charge was framed.

He said that there were many contradictions and discrepancies in the case, and that the benefit of doubt must go in the favour of the accused.

“The learned trial judge has ignored the basic principles of criminal justice in general and principles of Islamic Justice in particular,” Shakir said in the appeal that he submitted to the Lahore High Court.

Shakir was confident that the High Court would set aside the lower court’s verdict against Sawan Masih; however, he expressed the fear that while his appeal would be pending before the court, Masih might languish in jail for years. He said he had filed the appeal in Asia Bibi’s case in 2010 and its turn for hearing came in 2014 as the High Court had a backlog of cases to clear first, and that this case might take three to five years more even if Masih was proven innocent.

While Sawan Masih’s case was disposed of expeditiously, another related case of burning of about 200 Christian houses moves at a snail’s pace in the Anti-Terrorism Court. Imran Shahid, the man who accused Sawan of committing blasphemy, and about 100 others are among the accused in this case. Besides them, Muslim clerics and businessman of the locality were allegedly involved in burning the colony using chemicals and fire accelerants.

Narrating the horrific scenes of the burning of his church and colony, Babu Pervaiz, a Catholic priest, said that on March 8 about 30 policemen came to the colony and created a panic among the residents by asking them to evacuate.

“Before that day, nobody knew what had happened. We left our houses without locking up or taking anything along and it was later that we came to know about the incident as there were banners on the streets against Sawan,” Pervaiz said.

“I came back at night to lock the doors but the police did not let me do that. I again came back to the colony but had to return from the main road. There were groups of men moving around and only about a dozen policemen were there. They started burning the colony. All except five or six houses, including my own, were reduced to ashes. The remaining houses were vandalised and when we came back there was nothing left in our house, they had taken away whatever little we had.”

Father Babu Pervaiz said that following the tragedy, the Christians were continuously harassed and beaten up. “Members of three families were attacked and as a result, one family has already left the colony.”

Talking about the case, Naeem Shakir said that the police were using delaying tactics. They have included many more after the case was filed while excluded others from the list of the accused. Some politicians belonging to the ruling party were allegedly involved in it and they were influencing the trial, he said.

“At the time of the attack, area businessmen of the Ittehad Group and Aman Group were contesting elections,” Shakir said, adding that the businessmen had used the blasphemy allegations to win support. A day before the attack they had put up banners against the accused in all the streets of the area, he said, and alleged that the police, instead of ensuring the rule of law, forced the Christians to leave their houses, leaving an open field for the attackers.

Talking about blasphemy cases, Naeem Shakir said that the legislation needed to be revisited as it gave a very vague definition of blasphemy and anyone could be easily roped in under the law. The provisions of the law were being ruthlessly abused and the religious freedom of non-Muslims was being infringed upon, he said.

Shakir suggested that the government should take Islamic scholars like Javed Ghamidi on board to revisit the legislation, adding that it was increasing the vulnerability of all citizens as blasphemy cases were also filed against Muslims who were implicated in such cases to settle personal scores.