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India-Pakistan
Pakistan shut down amid walkouts
2011-01-01
[Iran Press TV] Businesses close down across Pakistain in a strike called by religious parties to pressure the government over plans to amend a blasphemy law.
It's the Land of the bloody Pure. They can't back down now, just because a couple of infidels are unhappy.
Pakistain's religious groups had called for a national strike to block any amendment to the law. Reports say markets remained closed and roads deserted in the cities of Bloody Karachi, Lahore, Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, Quetta, Islamabad and Rawalpindi on Friday.

Demonstrators have warned that any move seeking to alter the existing blasphemy law would unleash a wave of nationwide protests.

"We will not allow the government to bring about any change in the blasphemy law. If it tried to do so, we would send it packing," Hafiz Hamdullah, a local leader of the Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) party, told supporters in the southwestern city of Quetta.

Experts say the strike had more to do with politics than religion.

The strike went ahead though officials said the government had no intention to amend the controversial law.

Former Information Minister Sherry Rehman from the ruling Pakistain People's Party made public fury when she lodged a bill seeking to abolish the death penalty for blasphemy.

The Islamabad government says some political groups were misusing this law against minorities.

The recent row has also triggered a political crisis in the south Asian country which has been run by Pakistain People's Party since 2008.

The developments come at a time when the Islamabad government is trying to tackle the growing militancy and economic crisis in the country.
Posted by:Fred

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