LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) dismissed a petition, filed by an alleged homosexual, who sought protective bail after the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) issued a fatwa which ordered that he be killed. The court declared that the case was non-prosecutable.



Petitioner M* filed a bail application through Advocate Imran Hussain Ghumman, naming the State, Gujrat Saddar SHO Sarai Alamgir, Bashir Ahmad and CII as respondents.



The counsel for the petitioner told the court that his client was a noble and law-abiding citizen of Pakistan who had been studying in the United Kingdom. He added that no criminal case had ever been registered against him at any police station in Pakistan or abroad.



He said the petitioner was of Pakistan origin and had been living in Gujrat district before going to the UK for studies in February 2011. The counsel said his client, while living in the liberal environment of the United Kingdom, developed homosexual tendencies and had relations with other boys.



He said when the man’s parents learnt of their son’s sexual orientation from an individual who returned from the UK, they approached the CII for its input. They said the boy had violated the norms of Islam and their culture.



The respondent CII allegedly asked the parents to disown their son and passed a fatwa (religious decree), on March 5, 2018, that M be killed the when he returns to Pakistan. Respondent Bashir Ahmed is an uncle of the petitioner and his daughter S* was engaged to him.



The sexual preference of the petitioner led to this engagement breaking off. Bashir took this development as a violation of his honour and took M’s father to the CII to get a fatwa.



Bashir also approached the respondent SHO to get a criminal case registered against the petitioner under Section 377 of the Pakistan Penal Code. Later, he filed a suit at a civil court and sought damages worth Rs50 million from M.



He said the petitioner’s actions caused mental distress and social embarrassment for him and his family.



The petitioner’s counsel, meanwhile, told the court that ever since respondents Bashir Ahmad and CII learnt of M’s alleged homosexuality, they had been asking the parents about his return to carry out the fatwa. He contended that the boy feared that he would be murdered by the respondents whenever he comes to Pakistan.



He submitted that the respondents had no lawful justification to arrest or kill the petitioner and the respondent SHO had no lawful authority to raid at M’s house for homosexuality that he may have practiced in the UK.



Published in The Express Tribune, May 28th, 2019.