Pakistan's blasphemy law U-turn

Christians in Pakistan have demonstrated against the laws

By Owen Bennett-Jones in Islamabad

Pakistan's human rights commission has reacted strongly after the country's military ruler gave up plans to change the way in which a controversial blasphemy law is implemented.

A number of Islamic organisations had threatened to hold demonstrations on Friday to protest against the proposed changes.

But General Musharraf has said that he now plans to leave the laws completely unchanged.

Minority religious groups in Pakistan, and especially the Christians, have long complained that the blasphemy laws are used to persecute them.

The human rights commission said that the military regime's stated commitment to human rights had been exposed as hollow.

It said General Musharraf had made a craven retreat after being panicked by conservative clerics.

Bishop John Joseph killed himself in protest at the blasphemy laws

The controversy concerns the military's proposal to change the way in which blasphemy cases are registered.

Currently, if an individual goes to the police and simply accuses someone of blasphemy, the police have to make an immediate arrest before an investigation.

Climbdown

General Musharraf was suggesting that to discourage false accusations, claims about blasphemy should initially be referred to a senior civil servant, who would then investigate before ordering any arrest.

The military insisted that this was just a procedural change, and did not mean that the law itself was being amended.

Nevertheless, many Islamic groups reacted sharply and their threats of protests this Friday have led General Musharraf to change his mind.

The Christian Liberation Front said that the military authorities had bowed to extremist pressure.

It had proved incapable of pushing through a relatively minor measure which anyway fell well short of a full repeal of the blasphemy laws, it said.