NEW DELHI: The European Parliament has called for a resolution to review the Generalised Schemes of Preference Plus (GSP+) status granted to Pakistan due to an alarming increase in the use of blasphemy accusations across the country. Besides, they have taken note of the rising number of online and offline attacks on journalists and civil society organisations.
The review is likely to take place this month in Islamabad and Pakistan is worried as it could mean temporary withdrawal of the status and the benefits that come with it.
EU’s GSP removes import duties from products coming into the EU market from vulnerable developing countries. This helps developing countries to alleviate poverty and create jobs based on international values and principles, including labour and human rights.
During the 6th round of EU-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue (held in Brussels in December), the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of European Commission Josep Borrell expressed concern over the human rights situation in Pakistan.
The EU had maintained that Pakistan had failed to make meaningful advances in protecting human rights particularly in relation to the controversial blasphemy laws.
Meanwhile, yesterday a sessions court in Pakistan’s Ghotki, in Sindh, sentenced a Hindu teacher, Nautan Lal, with life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 50,000. Lal has been languishing in Central Prison in Sukkur since 2019.
Charges were levelled against him by a student in 2019. Despite finding no evidence against Lal, the court took action against him. According to some media reports in Pakistan, the student (Mohammad Ihtisham) later took to social media and confessed that he had cooked up the charges levelled against his teacher and even sought forgiveness.
However, that did not deter communal violence and even desecration of temples and burning of shops owned by Hindus. The violence spread to other towns like Mirpur, Mathelo and Adilpur.
According to a think-tank based in Pakistan, Centre for Research and Security Studies, the country has reported a total of 1,415 cases of blasphemy since partition in 1947. Out of this, around 18 women and 71 men were extra-judicially killed over blasphemy.
The think-tank also says that the actual cases would be much higher as not all cases are reported. More than 70 per cent of such cases were reported from Punjab.