SilencedPPC Section 298-C: Person of Quadiani group, etc., calling himself a Muslim or preaching or propagating his faith
Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), 1860
What this section covers
Official heading: Person of Quadiani group, etc., calling himself a Muslim or preaching or propagating his faith
Criminalises Ahmadis calling themselves Muslims, or preaching or propagating their faith, including online.
Maximum penalty: Up to 3 years, and fine
Part of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), 1860. Pakistan's main criminal code, enacted in 1860 and amended many times since. It defines most crimes and their punishments. The sections tracked here are those reports cite in speech cases: conspiracy and sedition-type offences (121-A, 131), promoting enmity between groups (153-A), statements causing public mischief (505), criminal intimidation (506), and the blasphemy laws (295-A to 298-C).
A plain-language explanation, not legal advice. The official text always takes precedence.
Official text
The official consolidated text, published by the Ministry of Law and Justice on Pakistan Code:
Recent incidents citing this law
The following verified cases are currently mapped on Silenced under this law.
3 verified incidents whose report cites 298-C. Citations are read automatically from news reports and can be incomplete; inclusion does not verify the allegation.
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Sahiwal police arrest 3 for allegedly sharing sectarian content on social media
Sahiwal police said on Tuesday they arrested three men in separate cases over the last 24 hours for allegedly sharing hate speech, blasphemous content and sectarian material on social media.
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“A Conspiracy to Grab the Land”
Source reports a death sentence linked to online activity: "[1] Increasingly, those alleging blasphemy have based their accusations on comments made on social media."
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Misuse of blasphemy law
WHEN the FIA informed the Islamabad High Court the other day that it had no evidence that the five bloggers abducted and detained for many days had committed blasphemy , it did not add anything to the people’s knowledge as they had known this fact all along. (A fifth victim was picked up later on.) Their abduction and detention had certain unique features.