ASIA/PAKISTAN - The European Parliament: “Shed light on the crime, continuing the work of Bhatti”

Strasbourg (Agenzia Fides) – Shed light on all aspects of Pakistani Minister Shahbaz Bhatti's murder; bring the perpetrators of the crime quickly to justice; quickly appoint a new Minister for Religious Minorities and, through him, continue the work of Bhatti, in defence of religious minorities and inter-religious dialogue.These are the requests made to Pakistani civil authorities through a Resolution by the European Parliament, adopted yesterday, 10 March, by the Assembly in Strasbourg.
EU MPs voted and approved the text proposed by the Finnish Parliamentarian Eija-Ritta Khorola, who personally knew Bhatti and had invited him to visit the EU institutions. Bhatti had welcomed the invitation and visited the Parliament the day after the Resolution was adopted by the Assembly in May 2010, which called for the protection of human rights, the defence of religious minorities and the abolition of the blasphemy law in Pakistan. Later, after the murder of the Governor of Punjab, Salmaan Taseer, in January 2011, the EU Parliament passed a new resolution reiterating these demands to the institutions in Pakistan. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 11/3/2011)