.... The blasphemy laws – a set of provisions inserted into Pakistan's criminal laws under the Islamist dictator General Ziaul Haq – made it a crime punishable by death for anyone charged with defiling the Qur'an or defaming the prophet Muhammad.
The Lahore high court has taken the unprecedented step of barring the president of Pakistan from pardoning Bibi, a step decried as unconstitutional by legal experts. The blasphemy law "turns them [minorities] into second-class citizens, deprived of freedom of expression or belief," says Human Rights Watch's Ali Dayan Hasan. [Guardian Cif] Read more
