Senate Committee proposes punishment for false accusations of blasphemy

A Senate Special Committee on Human Rights on Tuesday recommended that perpetrators of false accusations of blasphemy be given the same punishment as set for those accused for blasphemy.

“Anyone falsely accusing someone of blasphemy should be subjected to the same punishment as a person convicted of blasphemy,” the recommendation stated.
The recommendation also said that anyone looking to register a blasphemy case at a police station should have to bring two witnesses to support their accusation.
“We are not trying to make any changes to the blasphemy law, we are trying to keep people from misusing it,” Senator Farhatullah Babar clarified during a meeting of the committee.
The committee decided to forward their recommendations to the Council of Islamic Ideology.
Committee member Senator Mufti Abdul Sattar, who belongs to the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl, opposed the recommendations, terming them “an attempt to sabotage the blasphemy law.”
“Are there no other laws in the country that are being misused?” the legislator said.
Under the existing law, the false accuser can only face proceedings under Section 182 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
Section 182 of the PPC entails the maximum punishment of six months or a fine up to Rs1,000 only.
Last year, in October, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) had suggested that parliament make the blasphemy law tougher by fixing the same punishment for any person misusing it or falsely accusing someone of blasphemy.
The recommendation was made in the long order addressing a a petition seeking elimination of blasphemous content from social media.
Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui had said in his order that due to the misuse of the law critics even demanded abolishing it, adding it was better to stop exploitation of the law rather than abolishing it.
At the time, the judge referred the matter to the legislature to amend the law for awarding the same punishment for lodging a false complaint under the blasphemy law.