Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2014-10-22-Speech-3-502-000"
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"en.20141022.25.3-502-000"2
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"I am speaking primarily in my role as Chair of the Delegation for countries of South Asia which actually includes Pakistan, and I want to make it clear to the House that these issues have been raised on our visits there. They have been raised with the authorities in terms of the death penalty in general and in terms of the case of Asia Bibi, in the case of Muhammad Asghar, and others. So those cases are raised. People should also be aware that there have been changes in Pakistan in recent years as regards accession to international human rights instruments, and that the European Union is working towards improvement there. However, as Members have said, the blasphemy laws are something to which we return to time after time, and obviously they are of major concern to us.
They are often used, as people have said, to settle scores and that certainly seems to have been the case here. While allegations of blasphemy are raised against minorities, I would echo the words of my colleague here that it is also important to see that the majority of people accused under these laws are Muslim. I think that if we do not acknowledge that we make it much more difficult for those arguing for change in Pakistan because they are often accused of promoting a pro-Western, pro-Christian agenda rather than promoting human rights in general and we know, people have said, that it can be dangerous to speak in favour of reforming the laws, just as it is dangerous to be accused of breaking them.
We have seen over 50 people murdered by mob violence when they have been accused of blasphemy and their cases have never made it to court. This has a real chill effect on politicians and I think, as politicians, we can understand that, so we need to support those in Pakistan who do wish to speak out for change, who wish to speak against the death penalty, who wish to speak for reform of these laws for every citizen in Pakistan, whatever their faith."@en1
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