Supporters of Islamic parties hold party flags and shout slogans as they demand punishment for Aasia Bibi, the Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy, at a rally in Karachi last month.
In the weeks since the Punjab governor's assassination on January 4, Islamist extremists have not just ignored all international and domestic criticism of the killing. They have also stepped up their own enforcement of the blasphemy law by accusing one of Pakistan's most prominent civic leaders of violating it.
A summons filed recently in a court in Multan, in southern Punjab, accuses Sherry Rehman of insulting the Prophet Muhammad in a recent television interview. Rehman, a parliament deputy who is also a former cabinet member and senior member of the Pakistan People's Party, denies the charges.
The defense attorney for Aasia Bibi, whose death sentence on blasphemy charges is at the heart of the current deadly struggle over the law, has decided to put off requesting an appeals hearing for his client. That is out of fear passions over her case would explode if her trial reopens now, and it would be impossible to have a fair hearing.
Bibi, a Christian, was accused of blasphemy in June 2009 after an argument erupted over her use of a water pitcher belonging to a Muslim co-worker. She has already spent more than a year in prison waiting for a review of her case by the provincial High Court in Lahore, which historically has overturned all blasphemy death sentences despite the lower courts' readiness to issue them.
In the weeks since the Punjab governor's assassination on January 4, Islamist extremists have not just ignored all international and domestic criticism of the killing. They have also stepped up their own enforcement of the blasphemy law by accusing one of Pakistan's most prominent civic leaders of violating it.
A summons filed recently in a court in Multan, in southern Punjab, accuses Sherry Rehman of insulting the Prophet Muhammad in a recent television interview. Rehman, a parliament deputy who is also a former cabinet member and senior member of the Pakistan People's Party, denies the charges.
The defense attorney for Aasia Bibi, whose death sentence on blasphemy charges is at the heart of the current deadly struggle over the law, has decided to put off requesting an appeals hearing for his client. That is out of fear passions over her case would explode if her trial reopens now, and it would be impossible to have a fair hearing.
Bibi, a Christian, was accused of blasphemy in June 2009 after an argument erupted over her use of a water pitcher belonging to a Muslim co-worker. She has already spent more than a year in prison waiting for a review of her case by the provincial High Court in Lahore, which historically has overturned all blasphemy death sentences despite the lower courts' readiness to issue them.
