Islamabad: April 12, 2013. (PCP) The Pakistani Senate Standing Committee on National Harmony has recommended that false blasphemy accusations carry the same punishment as blasphemy – the death penalty. The call was made in a meeting of the committee on 4 April, following the Joseph Colony attack. Committee members agreed that the attack damaged Pakistan’s image on the international level and that immediate steps should be taken to prevent similar instances of violence against Christians in the future. Kamran Michael, the only Christian senator and committee member, highlighted that overturning blasphemy convictions could take as long as a decade in some cases and that even after being released, the lives of those accused were still at risk. “At the moment, as many as a hundred Christians and a few hundred Muslims are in jails because they were involved in cases of blasphemy but not a single one has been convicted. There should be equal punishment for the person who makes false blasphemy accusations,” he said. At least a hundred Christian homes were set on fire during the Joseph Colony attack. The committee heard from the deputy commissioner of Lahore that mismanagement of the situation by police played a role in the violence.