Pakistan’s attorney general and provincial advocate general have been issued notices by the Peshawar High Court regarding a petition calling for the removal of all punishments except the death penalty for blasphemy from the country’s penal code.
The notices were issued because the bench said the matters raised in the petition needed serious consideration.

The petitioner claimed the issue of an alternative punishment of life imprisonment had already been decided by the Federal Shariat Court, but it had not been implemented by federal and provincial governments.

According to him, the Federal Shariat Court said an alternative punishment of life imprisonment went against the injunctions of Islam.
The hearing will be fixed later.

The respondents in the petition are the federation of Pakistan through law secretary, federal law minister, KP governor and its chief minister, KP Assembly through its secretary, provincial law minister, provincial chief secretary and law secretary, and KP Assembly’s speaker.

According to the petitioner, it is the responsibility of the respondents to bring all existing laws in conformity with the injunctions of Islam as laid down in the Holy Quran and Sunnah, under Article 227 of the Constitution.