This incident has once again put the country’s controversial blasphemy law under the spotlight.
KARACHI: This is with reference to your editorial of December 14 titled “Land of lunacy” on the arrest under blasphemy charges of 57-year-old Dr Naushad Valiyani in Hyderabad (though he was later released).
The doctor threw the visiting card of a medical representative in the dustbin and was charged with blasphemy because the man’s first name happened to be ‘Muhammad’. This incident has once again put the country’s controversial blasphemy law under the spotlight. In our country, millions of people are named after the Holy Prophet (pbuh). Newspapers frequently print such names and in most cases the paper is thrown away. If such things come under the blasphemy law, no one in Pakistan would be spared the wrath of the cleric.
I appeal to all political parties having representatives in parliament to work together to modify the law so as to prevent its gross misuse.
Mohammad Khan Sial
Published in The Express Tribune, December 16th, 2010.
