The Pakistani Government has denied that the blasphemy law is being used to target religious minorities in Pakistan.

Interior Minister of Pakistan Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said that perception that religious minorities are suffering because of abuse of blasphemy laws is not true.

He said the facts and figures showed that in the majority of cases the respondents of blasphemy cases were Muslims.

In response to a question by People’s Party’ lawmaker Begum Hasnain, he told the House that there were 129 cases of blasphemy registered in total. Out of these 99 cases were registered against Muslims; which makes it 76% of the total instances.

However, the Senate’s Committee on Human Rights has unanimously agreed to bring about a change in blasphemy legislation in order to prevent the misuse of blasphemy laws.

In keeping with the Committee’s recommendations; police officers ranked lower Superintendents will not be allowed to investigate blasphemy cases. Moreover, the Committee has also recommended bail to be available for the those accused of blasphemy charges.

Recently a statement was issued by Senator Farhat Ullah saying the discussion around the blasphemy laws will be centered around the recommendations contained in a report which is 24 years old.