A Pakistani Christian with mental health issues has been arrested and charged under blasphemy, terrorism and sedition laws, sources said.
On August 6, police arrested Rashid Masih, 48, on suspicion of recording a video against Islam and the government with the intent to incite religious tensions. His son Nabeel Rasheed, a resident of Hujra Shah Mukeem in Punjab’s Okara district, said the police had booked him under Sections 295-A and 298 of the Blasphemy Act, Section 124-A of sedition and Section 9 of the Anti-Terrorism Act.
Rasheed said Masih has been suffering from severe depression for the past two to three years as he has not been able to get justice from the government or other organizations.
“He and my mother, Najma Rashid, worked as sanitary workers at a rural health center and were falsely targeted when they spoke out against corruption and theft of government resources by Muslim staff,” Nabeel Rashid told Christian Daily International Morning Star News. “His Muslim colleagues also turned against him when he rejected attempts to convert him to Islam.”
Nabeel Rasheed said the health department took no action on his complaints and transferred him to another district, before terminating his service in January 2018. Masih had filed petitions in the Lahore High Court and the Punjab Ombudsperson’s Office against his unfair dismissal, but his pleas for justice fell on deaf ears, he said.
Legal costs and job loss put the Maci family in deep financial crisis.
“The situation has reached a stage where our parents can no longer afford to provide education for our three children, two sons and a daughter,” Nabeel Rasheed said. “The crisis affected Maci’s mental health and she fell into severe depression.”
They took him to the mental health unit of Lahore General Hospital for treatment and later admitted him to the Punjab Institute of Mental Health, but he continued to suffer from bouts of depression, he said.
“My father is a good man, but he has suffered a lot because of his Christian faith,” he said. “Those who had developed a grudge against him over the years by exposing their own wrongdoings conspired to take advantage of his mental state and implicate him in a false case.”
Nabeel Rasheed said his mother has also been targeted by frequent transfers to remote locations and months of salary withholding.
“This is the price we continue to pay as a family for my father’s stance against a corrupt system,” he said.
Nabeel Rasheed said Masih was a devout Christian who was committed to defending the truth and serving humanity, regardless of his religious background, adding: “He is a victim of the system and deserves sympathy.”
Christian lawyer Lazar Allah Raka said there were legal provisions regarding mental illness in blasphemy cases, including the defense of insanity under Section 84 of the Pakistan Penal Code and the inability to stand trial in cases of “insaneness” under Section 464 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
“However, there are wide gaps between these laws and their practical application, mental illness is often an unsuccessful defense, and the strong social and political pressure surrounding blasphemy laws leaves individuals vulnerable to vigilante justice and prosecution,” said Laca, who has successfully defended several people falsely accused of blasphemy.
Additionally, Pakistan’s mental health system is under-resourced and mental health remains stigmatized, making it difficult to ensure proper assessment and treatment for defendants, he added.
Pakistan was ranked eighth on Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List of the 50 most difficult countries to be a Christian.
