Pakistan court orders probe into online blasphemy spike
There has been a spike in cases of mostly young men being arrested for committing blasphemy in WhatsApp groups since 2022.
Rights groups and police have said that many are brought to trial by private law firms, who use volunteers to scour the internet for offenders.
"The government will constitute a commission within a 30-day timeframe," said Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan at Islamabad High Court, adding that the commission is required to submit its findings within four months.
Blasphemy is an incendiary charge in Muslim-majority Pakistan punishable by death, and even unsubstantiated accusations can incite public outrage, lead to lynchings and to families being shunned by society.
A report published by the government-run National Commission for Human Rights in October last year said there were 767 people, mostly young men, in jail awaiting trial over blasphemy allegations.
"This is a huge ray of hope and it's the first time that the families have felt heard," said lawyer Imaan Mazari, who represents the families of arrested men and women, of the court order.
"Youngsters have been falsely roped into cases of such a sensitive nature that the stigma will last forever even if they are acquitted," she added.
A 2024 report by Punjab police into the sudden spike in cases, that was leaked to the media, found that "a suspicious gang was trapping youth in blasphemy cases" and may be motivated by financial gain.
The Legal Commission on Blasphemy Pakistan (LCBP) is the most active of lawyers groups prosecuting young men in Pakistan.
Sheraz Ahmad Farooqi, one of the group's leaders, told AFP in October that "God has chosen them for this noble cause".
In recent years, several youngsters have been convicted and handed death sentences, although no execution has ever been carried out for blasphemy in Pakistan.
"We will fully support the probe commission and are confident that our voices will finally be listened to, our concerns will be heard, and the truth will come out," the relative of one of the accused, who asked not to be named because of the backlash, said.
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