A former employee of the Senate was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly insulting the Prophet on his Facebook page in Pakistan’s Punjab province, the police said.

Tauseef Shahzad, who is in his 20s, has been booked under section 295 (C) of the Pakistan Penal Code and Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997, police said.

Section 295C forbids insults to the Prophet. The minimum penalty is a mandatory life sentence; the maximum is death. In 1990, Pakistan’s Federal Shariah Court ruled that the death penalty should be mandatory. Shahzad is a resident of Cheechawatni city, 240km from Lahore.

According to the FIR, Sub-Inspector Shamsul Hasan, during night duty, opened Facebook and found blasphemous posts uploaded from Shahzad’s account.

On Hasan’s complaint, a blasphemy case was registered against the suspect who was arrested on Tuesday.

The police said they have taken Shahzad’s wife and three children into custody to save them from any public reaction. In Pakistan, blasphemy is punishable by death or life imprisonment. Frequently, crowds lynch the blasphemy accused before the matter even reaches the courtroom.

No beggars

Saudi Arabia has raised concerns about the growing number of Pakistani beggars arriving in the kingdom as pilgrims and asked Islamabad to take action to prevent them from entering the Gulf country, the Express Tribune said on Tuesday.

It reported that the Saudi authorities have warned that if the situation is not controlled, it could affect Pakistani pilgrims.