Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has noticed with regret that 11 year old Rimsha is still languishing in jail. Besides being underage she is also suffering from a serious disability called downs syndrome.
There is little doubt that she is unfit to determine what is blasphemous or not. Extending her remand for another 14 days is a travesty of justice. Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf strongly believes that no one should be allowed to injure the religious feelings of anybody and therefore blasphemy laws are necessary. If someone indeed commits blasphemy he or she should be proceeded against under the law, says a press release issued on Friday.
But, in application it is crucial for the law enforcement agencies to proceed with caution and distinguish between genuine cases of blasphemy and those cases where certain people are misusing the law to settle personal scores, or as in this case the accused is underage and handicapped.
The onus thus is on law enforcement agencies to ensure that the application of the law is fair. In this case it does not appear to be so.