Pakistan plans within this year to revise its laws against blasphemy, which have long been criticised as a way to abuse minorities, a government minister said. Minister for Minority Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti said religious reconciliation was a little-noticed priority for President Asif Ali Zardari's civilian government in Pakistan, which lies on the frontline of the US-led war against extremism.
Bhatti, a long-time Roman Catholic activist whose position was given full cabinet status for the first time, said he was speaking with political parties to present revisions to the blasphemy law by the end of 2010.
"This is a democratic government which has a commitment to repeal all the discriminatory laws affecting the rights of minorities," Bhatti told AFP in an interview in Washington. "We are using military action to fight terrorism and we are using economic opportunities, but another thing which is important is that we are pursuing interfaith harmony," he said.
Bhatti said that while he did not envision an immediate repeal of blasphemy laws, the revision would require judges to investigate cases before they are registered - creating oversight of the police, who are often accused of abuse.
The revised law would also assign punishment equivalent to that under the blasphemy laws for anyone who makes a false complaint, he said. Bhatti was in Washington to attend the National Prayer Breakfast, an annual Christian-organised gathering drawing national leaders. He also met with US lawmakers, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom and Richard Holbrooke, the US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Law against blaspheming carries the death penalty. While no one has ever been sent to the gallows for the crime, activists say the law is used to exploit others out of personal enmity or business disputes.