mr president i think all of us would want to express our condolences to the family and friends of salmaan taseer the governor of punjab put in place by the government of pakistan and we are remembering here today his clear support for asia bibi a position he knew to be controversial and indeed dangerous
we are rightly distressed by his murder and the reaction to it by part of the population of pakistan but we should not forget as well that many have mourned him and have done that in public as a public act
it is an act we should be commending like for example the action taken by the media regulator against certain media with regard to their coverage of the alleged murderer
however as we know the blasphemy law in pakistan puts the lives of pakistani citizens at risk muslim christian and others alike as many speakers have said this afternoon
we are aware that pakistan is a new democracy that it is facing conflict on its borders and that it has faced the disaster of the recent flood as well as the earthquake only this week
we know that the government is struggling but we also recognise that it needs our support in terms of developing democracy within pakistan not least in the political battle against extremism and for universal human rights and it is our role as democratic parliamentarians to support all those who are working for positive change and to give them the voice that others would deny them
we are also asking for action by the government of pakistan not least to remove the reservations on the international covenant on civil and political rights which they ratified with a large number of reservations and we urged this in our recent delegation visit to pakistan
we want them as well to continue the efforts to change the blasphemy law because this is a law that is more abused than properly used
