Re: blasphemy laws in Pakistan
On the harsh nature of the punishment I agree with you, you should not simply kill a guy for what he said in private or public…
The grey area for me is those who preach active hate speech and are rabble rousers, I mean the sort of persons who will shout how evil muslims are and burn a masjid a koran and heaven forbid will actually shoot a muslim given half a chance, likewise there are some Muslim ulema who will tell you that killing people becuase they are Jews or Hindu or whatever is sawab and you should go do it… that sort of person especially if his words led to bloodshed deserves death in my opinion as a deterent.
But it does not happen often so a fine or short term imprisonment or perhaps forced tableeg or something is far better punishment. 
But I am sure you will agree we do need some form of legislation to prevent such blasphemy… so next time theres a Rushdie case or something we can just ban the book and even fine the author if he ever tries to sell such lies in Pakistan.