Pakistan, a country where Zuckerberg can face death penalty

The news that Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg may face a death penalty by the Lahore High Court (LHC) didn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has been following the facebook fiasco in Pakistan. Keeping in view the recent few verdicts by the LHC which ironically defied some basic laws of physics, geography and common sense, there is a major possibility that the young entrepreneur from New York is sentenced to a death penalty under Criminal Code 295-C on blasphemy laws.

Now I am not here to discuss the global pitfall of such a verdict in the age of the social media, nor will I defend the future of internet for those Pakistanis who make a living out of it. Because let’s face it - a country experiencing crises like energy, inflation, terrorism, corruption, starvation etc should care less about bad publicity in an international market where its local entrepreneurs and businessmen are trying to make some name and money. Being the ideological and fundamentalist nation that we are, under no circumstances should we compromise our religious integrity and the right to protest against infidels running blasphemous sites on the World Wide Web.

But just for conversation's sake, why are these condemnations or speedy rulings restricted to certain issues? We are ready to go to any extent if a non-believer mocks our sacred values but if a believer in religious apparel commits a suicide attack or is guilty of sectarian violence, we conveniently shy away.

Since the “golden” period of Zia, Pakistan is home to sectarian criminals. The political progeny of the military dictator might condemn the military ruling in the country but are continuing the same legacy of sectarian prejudice. The Punjab government has never denied their political coalition with a debarred organisation. In fact, sometimes I wonder who is the real boss of Rana Sanaullah?

FYI:  the love is not one sided.

The irony doesn’t end here as terrorists are released on lack of evidence, while the remaining ones find a way around. All these facts reassure us that there will be another attack on Manawan training center, target killings on a sectarian basis will continue as the perpetrators of the Ashura tragedy are out there planning another attack. The Ahmadis will continue to live under the fear of getting mass murdered, again. And each attack will be followed by feeble condemnations and monotonous rhetoric.

But all this violence shouldn't stop the LHC from sentencing the real terrorist, Mark Zuckerberg.

Ammar Yasir blogs at RONIN and tweets @ammaryasir. This post was originally published here.