“Maybe you who condemn me are in greater fear than I who am condemned.”

–Giordano Bruno

Contrary to popular belief, the blasphemy law was not born out of Zia’s Islamist dictatorship. It, in fact, seeped into the subcontinent because of British colonial rulers in 1927 who termed “deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religious belief” as a criminal offence. Two Sections, 295 (A) and (B), were lodged, prescribing punishment for enraging religious feelings of any class or religious group.

Zia-ul-Haq, under his wave of Islamization, reinforced this law, making several modifications including a significant number of clauses also involving life imprisonment and the death penalty. The blasphemy law continues to grow in its enactment today.