A
Christian advocacy group has welcomed the Pakistani parliament's plans to reform
its controversial blasphemy laws.
The
planned reform comes after a university student was killed by a mob on April 14
after being accused of blasphemy, according to the Centre for Legal Aid,
Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS), a group that supports persecuted Christians
in Pakistan.
According
to Pakistani
laws, insulting Islam can incur the death penalty.
The
murdered student was a member of Abdul Wali Khan University in north-western
Pakistan and was beaten to death for allegedly promoting 'blasphemous' content
on social media, including his views on socialism and the mystic aspect of Islam
known as Sufism.
Another
student was injured in the mob attack, after which university officials closed
the campus. As many as 45 people have reportedly been detained in connection
with the lynching.
resolution by Pakistan's National Assembly condemned the killing and said that
legal safeguards needed to be implemented to avoid abuse of the country's
blasphemy laws.
CLAAS
director Nasir Saeed welcomed the news. He said: 'It is great news as in the
past whoever tried to speak about changes in the blasphemy law was shut up and
even threatened with death.
'Those
who raised their voices, like Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer and minority
minister Shahbaz Bhatti, were killed in broad daylight, and their killers hailed
as heroes.
'I
wish the Pakistani parliament had taken this step and realised the sensitivity
of the issue earlier, saving many innocent people who were killed for a crime
they never committed. Their lives could have been saved, but it is still not too
late.'
Advocacy
groups say that the majority-Muslim country's blasphemy laws are used to target
religious minorities, including Christians.
In
2011, Pakistan's minister for minorities Shahbaz Bhatti was murdered for
his opposition to the country's blasphemy laws. Bhatti, a devout Christian, was
shot by three masked men as he left his mother's home in Islamabad. He had
defended among others Asia Bibi, a Christian woman jailed in 2009 for blasphemy
who has been on death row for six years. Her defenders are adamant she was
wrongly blamed in an inter-communal argument.
Just
months before, Salman Taseer, governor of the Punjab region was also murdered
for his opposition to the blasphemy laws. His murderer was his own bodyguard
Mumtaz Qadri, who was later hanged. Thousands
attended Qadri's funeral, declaring him a martyr for Islam and demanding
tougher blasphemy laws.
In
January this year, a Christian man was arrested over
claims of blasphemy. Christian
Today.
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