Pak clerics seek death penalty for false blasphemy accusations

Pakistan's top religious clerics today supported the continuance of the country's controversial blasphemy law while proposing death penalty for people convicted of making false accusations.
"Blasphemy law remains but we have decided to fix the same penalty for the person who falsely accuses of blasphemy," scholar Allama Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi told reporters.
Blasphemy is a highly sensitive issue in Pakistan, where 97 per cent of the population are Muslim.
Critics say the law is often used to settle personal scores and had suggested that it be repealed.
The country's Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) suggested the government should bring in the death penalty for people convicted of making false accusations of blasphemy.

Ashrafi said this was done keeping in view the suggestions of human rights activists and civil society members. This ruling he said will also silence the critics.

Ashrafi said the proposed amendment would ensure that "nobody dares to use religion to settle personal scores".
In 2011, Punjab governor Salman Taseer and Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti were assassinated for demanding that the blasphemy law be reformed.
The council also reversed an earlier decision about the use of DNA as evidence in rape cases, which it had refused to accept.
"The council has now left the matter of DNA evidence for the courts," Ashrafi said.