Huge Karachi rally supports blasphemy laws

KARACHI, Jan 9, 2011: Tens of thousands of demonstrators have marched in Pakistan's largest city in opposition to any change to blasphemy laws and to praise the man charged with murdering the provincial governor who opposed the legislation.

The rally of up to 50,000 people in downtown Karachi on Sunday was one of the largest demonstrations of support for the laws that make insulting Islam a capital offense. The march was organized before Punjab Gov. Salman Taseer was shot dead last week by a bodyguard for opposing such laws.

Opposition politician Fazlur Rehman told the crowd that Taseer "was responsible for his own murder" because he had criticized the law. Banners at the event included some supporting Taseer's killer, police commando Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri. "Mumtaz Qadri is not a murderer, he is a hero," said one banner in the national Urdu language. "We are ready to sacrifice our lives for the dignity of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)," read another.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, during a press conference in Islamabad on Sunday, said his government had no intention to bring a fresh legislation to amend the blasphemy law.

Activists at the rally, which has been organized by religious groups, called for "jihad" or holy war.

The protest forced the closure of the city's main road and all markets in the teeming southern metropolis.

Controversy over the law flared when former Information Minister Sherry Rehman tabled a private member's bill in November, calling to end the death penalty for blasphemy, after a Christian mother-of-five was sentenced to hang.

Rights activists also say the law encourages extremism in a nation already besieged by Taleban attacks.

Politicians and conservatives have been at loggerheads over whether President Asif Ali Zardari should pardon Aasia Bibi, the Christian mother who was sentenced to death under the blasphemy law.

Pakistan has yet to execute anyone for blasphemy, but Bibi's case has exposed the deep fault lines in the conservative country. Bibi was arrested in June 2009 after Muslim women laborers allegedly refused to drink from a bowl of water she was asked to fetch while out working in the fields.

Days later, the women allegedly complained that she made derogatory remarks about Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Bibi was set upon by a mob, arrested by police and sentenced on Nov. 8. Most of those convicted of blasphemy in Pakistan have their sentences overturned or commuted on appeal through the courts.

Rights activists and pressure groups say it is the first time that a woman had been sentenced to hang in Pakistan for blasphemy.

Only around three percent of Pakistan's population of 167 million are estimated to be non-Muslim.

By AGENCIES