Change of Pakistan's blasphemy laws unlikely

The apparent collapse of a case against a Christian girl accused of burning pages of a Quran has given a dim ray of hope to critics of Pakistan's blasphemy laws, some of the harshest in the Muslim world.

The girl was believed to be mentally impaired, and a Muslim cleric from her neighborhood was eventually arrested for planting evidence to incriminate her. As the tables turned on her accusers, the girl was recently released on bail and whisked away in a military helicopter with her family to safety.

It was a remarkable turn of events in a country where people accused in even the flimsiest of cases of defiling Islam's holy book or the Prophet Muhammad have few defenders. Those accused of blasphemy can be sentenced to death if convicted -- assuming they are not killed first by vigilantes.

Human rights activists and others hope the girl's case will, at the very least, help prevent further abuses of laws designed to punish people for maligning Islam. Some Islamic religious figures came to her defense, bail was granted and an accuser arrested. All steps are extremely rare, but the question is whether that will translate into deeper change.

"We need to build on that,'' said Mustafa Qadri, a Pakistan researcher with Amnesty International.

Nevertheless, there is little appetite to repeal or amend the blasphemy laws, which remain very popular among Pakistanis. A coming election and fear of assassination will likely scuttle any attempt at meaningful change, experts said. Instead, the case may remain the lone exception.

"The great concern is that once this case dies down the real concrete steps that need to be taken, won't be taken,'' Qadri said.

The girl was arrested Aug. 16 when an angry mob surrounded her house in a poor section of Islamabad after word rapidly traveled through the neighborhood that she had burned pages of the Quran, Islam's holy book. Christians left the neighborhood en masse, fearing they would be targeted as has happened in other parts of Pakistan when minorities are accused of committing blasphemy.

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