Pakistan is now 70-years-old. Which is still quite young when it comes to nation states. Yet this is old enough to expect it to take some concrete decisions about its future. Blasphemy is one issue that polarises this country like no other. Previously, apologists for the religious right who liked not to identify themselves as such tried to dismiss this as nothing more than a lack of exposure or education. The usual disdain reserved for the imagined vast swathes of the unwashed and uncivilised. Or put another way, the poor and illiterate. In today’s Pakistan such false narratives simply won’t cut it anymore. The country, for some, is plugged in and not tuned out to the outside world. That university student Mashal Khan was lynched to death on a university campus by his classmates and members of the administration has once and for all and so very publicly debunked the false narrative surrounding lack of education. It matters not that Mashal didn’t actually commit blasphemy. It matters not that this was an orchestrated murder. For blasphemy remained the rallying cry. It is therefore within this context that we cautiously welcome, as first step, moves by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) to have Pakistan’s existing blasphemy laws amended to impose a tougher punishment upon anyone found invoking these to knowingly level false accusations. In the 116-paged detailed judgment, Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui favoured preventing further exploitation of these man-made laws over abolishing them altogether. We recognise the grounds for tentative reform. In Pakistan, it is not unheard of for those defending ‘blasphemers’ to wind up dead. Yet we would add that given the extent of the misuse of these laws to target minorities — this itself is tantamount to incitement to religious hatred. And as such should carry with it the very clear charge of attempted murder. Sadly, while the IHC recommended that the relevant provisions of the Anti-Terror Act 1997 be included by an investigating officer while registering any case of blasphemy — it did so exclusively on the grounds of linking this to the hurt sentiments of Muslims. This is despite the fact that our draconian laws also cover religions other than Islam when it comes to blasphemy. And herein lies the problem. In Pakistan, any debate centring on blasphemy is usually focused exclusively on Muslim sentiment. We mention this whilst being mindful of the fact that Pakistan is an Islamic Republic. In the long-term, a distinction between incitement to cause religious offence and blasphemy is needed. For we have said it before and we say it again. Blasphemy rests firmly in the eye of the beholder. Meaning that we strongly feel that a non-believer of any faith cannot commit blasphemy against a religion in which they do have faith. They are simply guilty of the slightly lesser evil of causing deliberate offence, at best. And incitement to religious hatred, at worst. This surely should suffice. * Published in Daily Times, August 17th 2017.