Islamabad - Pakistan People’s Party MNA Ramesh Lal has pleaded the Chief Justice and Army Chief to take notice of the blasphemous images in which PTI chief Imran Khan has been portrayed as Hindu god, Lord Shiva.
“It is blasphemy and it has hurt the religious sentiments of hundreds of thousands of Hindus residing in Pakistan. I, through Daily The Nation, appeal to Chief Justice of Pakistan and Army Chief to take notice of the matter,” Ramesh Lal said.
He showed his displeasure over the pace of investigation. “We raised the matter in the parliament on May 11 but after passage of one month situation is still the same”, he added.
After the appearance of Imran Khan's photograph as Lord Shiva last month, the Parliament ordered the Federal Investigation Agency to probe the matter.
According to officials, the page was run by two people and the name of one is Shahid Mehmood and it was being operated from Saudi Arabia.
The members of PTI, when blamed for blasphemy, passed the buck on supporters of rival Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) of circulating the offensive photograph on the social media site.
The page, titled “We Love Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif and PML(N)”, where the picture appeared was allegedly run by the supporters of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his party PML-N.
PPP's leader Ramesh Lal accused the ruling party of hurting the religious sentiments of the Hindus, which, according to him was against the Constitution of the country.
On the complaint of MNAs Ramesh Lal and Lal Chand Malhi, the matter was referred to a sub-committee on the government assurances.
During the last meeting, the officials told the committee that the picture of Imran Khan as Lord Shiva has been removed from the social media but it was not true, we showed it to the DG FIA later, it was up and running, Lal said. He said he believes religion preaches tolerance and he himself respects all religions and holy people. It is a very serious matter, we are hurt and the case must be tried in the Anti-terrorism court, Ramesh Lal said.
PPP lawmaker expressed his dismay over the Ministry of Information for making a false statement during the last meeting that the blasphemous social media page had been removed from the web.
In the meeting of sub-committee on the government assurance on Friday, officials from related ministries informed that they initiated the process of blocking the controversial pages by writing to head offices of the social media company. They said the pages would be blocked in due course of time. But the complainant wanted more than just verbal assurances.
“It is not that simple. Certain people have committed a blasphemy and had hurt the sentiments of Hindus. They must be dealt seriously that others in future refrain from doing any such activity which could result in hurting the sentiments of anyone,” Ramesh Lal demanded. “We have very peacefully tackled the matter and have not opted for any protest but it falls in the category of terrorism, we demand an immediate action,” the lawmaker added.