This law need to be abolished, because most of time people take advantage of this law to take out personal rivalry or land grabbing in remote areas in Pakistan. If someone is guilty then court should provide complete protection from mullahs. But unfortunately people in muslim world has so much love for the Islamic icons, but hate for fellow human being. Hypoism at its peak.
Love, respect and JUSTICE for fellow human being means we have love and respect for Holy Prophet PBUM, that's his teaching.
Pakistan Penal Code 302 ( manslaughter in the first degree) is abused as well. Do we abolish that too? Do we just abolish all of the laws in PPC, and let our morals guide us to live with love,respect and justice. I have said it a million times,
there are procedural issues with the blasphemy law but that does not make the entire law redundant.
If there were no blasphemy law, I could accuse you with blasphemy and kill you right now ,and not face any legal proceedings because there is no law to charge me with. At least now. I have a legal course to take if I think you indulged in blasphemy, but without this law people would just kill anyone, call it their religious obligation and get away with it.
I do not give these arguments out of religious zealousness, but purely from a legal and administrative standpoint. To understand the ST incident, we have to understand the PPC, the judicial system of Pakistan and how it dispenses justice. The crux of the problem is the judicial system of our country and the PPC. The PPC itself is outdated with regards to many laws which makes them vulnerable and easy to manipulate. Some of the active laws were written as far back as the colonial era. The police uses investigative methods which were prevalent in the British Raj which mainly compromises of compromise and coercion. Even if the investigation is done in the right manner, and the accused are presented in the court, there are a million ways to complicate and stall the proceedings. People find it more appropriate to either come to a compromise, or not take the route of law at all.
Have we forgotten the Sialkot incident? Was that out of religious bigotry as well? Has our judicial system been able to put the culprits involved in that heinous crime to justice? The Sialkot incident had nothing to do with religion, but with the simple fact that people have lost their trust and fear of the Pakistani laws and its judicial system. The perpetrators believe that they will never get caught, while the abused feel that the law will not, and is unable to protect them. Was Mukhtara Mai the only woman, was was abused? No, but she was one of the very few who reported it, and a minuscule minority who decided to pursue it legally. The reason is again, lack of trust in our Law Enforcement institutions.
I know we all like to bash the mullahs, I am not a big fan of them either but, for Heaven's sake people, let's not lose our
objectivity here. Someone was stupid enough to give in to his emotions, and kill the governor, and now by chanting "down with the mullahs, repel the blasphemy law", we are acting equally stupid, if not more. What we need right now is to revisit our existing laws and procedures, and revamp whatever is obsolete. The last time we did that was in 1955, when the GoP commissioned some political scientists from the US to analyze our Public Administration system, and point out its deficiencies. Go figure.