A well known talk-show host in Pakistan has been banned because of rhetoric described as "hate speech" in which he accused liberal activists of blasphemy, potentially putting their lives at risk.
In Muslim-majority Pakistan blasphemy is a criminal offence that can result in the death penalty. Accusations of blasphemy can incite violence towards the accused from right-wing vigilantes.
TV host Aamir Liaquat Hussain had been a leading voice in a campaign to discredit liberal activists who had gone missing this month. Hussain has now been banned by the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority. It said the host's show "wilfully and repeatedly made statements and allegations which [are] tantamount to hate speech, derogatory remarks, incitement to violence against citizens and casting accusations of being anti-state and anti-Islam".
Liaquat had accused several prominent Pakistanis of an anti-state agenda and of being involved with blasphemy against Islam's founder.
Pakistan's blasphemy laws have been an increasingly common point of controversy in recent years. In 2011, Pakistan's minister for minorities Shahbaz Bhatti was murdered for his opposition to the country's blasphemy laws. Bhatti, a devout Christian, was shot by three masked men as he left his mother's home in Islamabad. He had defended among others Asia Bibi, a Christian woman jailed in 2009 for blasphemy who has been on death row for six years. Her defenders are adamant she was wrongly blamed in an inter-communal argument.
Just months before, Salman Taseer, governor of the Punjab region was also murdered for his opposition to the blasphemy laws. His murderer was his own bodyguard Mumtaz Qadri, who was later hanged. Thousands attended his funeral, declaring him a martyr for Islam and demanding tougher blasphemy laws.
Christians were directly targeted in a Taliban suicide bombing that killed 72 and injured hundreds more in Lahore, further exacerbating religious tensions in Pakistan. In January this year, a Christian man was arrested over claims of blasphemy.
Nasir Saeed, director of CLAAS-UK, said at the time that the misuse of Pakistan's blasphemy law continues to increase against Christians and other minorities, and is considered to be a root cause of persecution.
Additional reporting by Reuters
