Critics condemn Pakistani government retraction

Pakistan's human rights commission has condemned a decision by the military authorities to abandon plans to change the country's controversial blasphemy law.

The changes were intended to make prosecutions more difficult, by requiring that any blasphemy complaint should be fully investigated before a suspect could be arrested.

But after a number of Islamic groups objected and threatened to mount protests, the government said it would leave the blasphemy law unchanged.

Human rights campaigners accused the country's military leader, General Musharraf, of making a craven retreat. A Christian pressure group, the Christian Liberation Front, said the military authorities had bowed to extremist pressure.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service