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Pakistani Ambassador to USA Sherry Rehman to be charged with Blasphemy

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Another bone headed decision by the Pakistani Courts. :hitwall:

Embassy Row: Dangerous duty for Pakistan

Embassy Row: Dangerous duty for Pakistan

Serving as Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States is risky business, as the country’s former envoy noted after hearing about the legal threat against the current ambassador.

Ambassador Sherry Rehman, who has been in Washington for a year, is under police investigation in Pakistan on accusations of violating the country’s blasphemy law, a charge that carries the death penalty.

Pakistan’s supreme court last week ordered a police inquiry into a complaint from a businessman against Ms. Rehman for comments she made in 2010 as a member of the Pakistani parliament. Ms. Rehman had proposed legislation to remove the death penalty for blasphemy convictions after Rimsha Masih, a teenage Christian girl, faced execution for burning pages of the Koran.

Following an international outcry, a court threw out her blasphemy conviction two months ago after a Muslim cleric, Hafiz Mohammed Khalid Chishti, was accused of framing the girl.

The complaint against Ms. Rehman, a prominent member of the ruling Pakistan People's Party, came from a businessman, Muhammad Faheem Ahkter Gill, 31, who claimed he was shocked by Ms. Rehman’s comments in a television interview in 2010. He told Pakistani reporters that he had tried for two years to get a court to hear his complaint.

In that interview, Ms. Rehman talked about her goal of removing the death penalty from Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, which are the strictest of any Muslim-majority nation. She dropped her efforts after facing resistance from her own party.

Defendants accused of blasphemy often face street mobs who kill them, even if they are acquitted. Many defendants flee Pakistan after they are freed by the courts.

Husain Haqqani, the Pakistani ambassador Ms. Rehman replaced in Washington, was shocked when he heard of the case against the ambassador.

“It seems that ambassador of Pakistan to the United States is becoming a hazardous job,” he said in an email to Embassy Row.

Mr. Haqqani, ambassador from 2008 to 2011, faced treason charges after a Pakistani-American businessman, Mansoor Ijaz, claimed he and Mr. Haqqani were involved in a plot to seek U.S. military intervention in Pakistan to prevent a military coup.

Mr. Haqqani strongly denied the allegations but resigned rather than face the vagaries of the Pakistani judicial system. He now teaches international relations at Boston University.

“Pakistan’s extremists charged me with treason without putting me on trial under law, and they seem to be doing something similar by accusing Ambassador Sherry Rehman of blasphemy,” Mr. Haqqani said.

He criticized the supreme court for accepting the petition of blasphemy instead of insisting the complaint be filed in a lower court, from which the case could work itself up the judicial system through appeals.

“These petitions generate a hostile environment without a formal charge or trial and encourage extremists to physically threaten an ambassador viewed as a traitor or blasphemer,” Mr. Haqqani said.

He added his concern that “ideologically motivated judges” are damaging Pakistan’s “image as a modern democracy.”
 
Then they will ask why the international image is so bad .

No kidding.

She was only appointed to USA because she is a woman, good looking and speaks good english so that she can soften up Pakistan's image in USA and then the bone headed courts do this?

I won't be surprised if she seeks asylum in USA.

This is such a sad state of affairs of Pakistan.
 
No kidding.

She was only appointed to USA because she is a woman, good looking and speaks good english so that she can soften up Pakistan's image in USA and then the bone headed courts do this?

I won't be surprised if she seeks asylum in USA.

This is such a sad state of affairs of Pakistan.

Sometimes i feel south asia is not best place for democracy . At the end of the day we are gonna bring retards in power . All political parties are bad to the bone . Its like choosing between fire and frying pan
 
i hate these stupid 18th century laws, we should have ditched them long time ago.
Doesn't the blasphemy law empower people because wielding it they can oppress or seek revenge against anybody without bothering with Pakistan's horribly flawed justice system? How could Pakistan possibly do without it?
 
Doesn't the blasphemy law empower people because wielding it they can oppress or seek revenge against anybody without bothering with Pakistan's horribly flawed justice system? How could Pakistan possibly do without it?

No it doesn't empower people instead it takes the power from them to act individually.It ensures them that there is an organised way to do this.This law is a absolute necessity.
 
No it doesn't empower people instead it takes the power from them to act individually.It ensures them that there is an organised way to do this.This law is a absolute necessity.
Till this date, it has been used the wrong way in Pakistan, are we forgetting recent rimsha case? This is a corrupt law and it needs to go.
 

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