Legislation needed to prevent Sialkot-type lynchings, Pakistan’s Council of Islamic Ideology says

ISLAMABAD: The Council of Islamic Ideology, a body that advises the Pakistan government on religious issues, has called for better legislation and improvements in the judicial system to ensure incidents such as this month’s lynching of a Sri Lankan factory manager in the city of Sialkot did not take place in the future.
At a meeting on Monday, the CII also passed a declaration that said all those found guilty of involvement in the Sialkot incident should be punished after following a thorough legal process.
Priyantha Kumara, an expatriate factory manager, was beaten and set ablaze by a mob in Pakistan over blasphemy allegations earlier this month. 
Blasphemy is considered a deeply sensitive issue in Pakistan and carries the death penalty. International and domestic rights groups say accusations of blasphemy have often been used to intimidate religious minorities and settle personal scores.
The CII said on Monday existing laws needed to be implemented properly and the judicial system strengthened to protect against misuse of the laws and incidents such as the Sialkot lynching. It said the state should take “immediate action” against anyone who took the law into his or her own hands. 
“Legislation is needed to prevent such incidents,” CII chairman Dr. Qibla Ayaz told media after the meeting. “Those responsible for the Sialkot tragedy should be punished … But we all understand that despite all shortcomings in the system it’s the responsibility of the state, as well as the citizens, to end the rising incidence of violence.”
Tahir Mahmood Ashrafi, a member of the CII who is also the PM’s adviser on interfaith harmony, said the state was very clear that another Sialkot-like incident would not be tolerated: “But at the same time we all need to understand that it will take time to get rid of the disease that has taken 40 years to mature,” he said, referring the religious polarization. 
The CII declaration said the council had always stated that non-enforcement of the law was the real problem and the solution was to ensure strict punishment for those involved in such incidents under existing laws.