A Pakistani court has delayed proceedings bail for a Christian girl accused of blasphemy, a charge punishable by death in Pakistan.
Moreno Masih was taken into custody earlier this month after angry neighbors surrounded his house in Islamabad and charged with burning pages engraved with verses of the Koran. Some say that she was still burning papers from the garbage for baking.
On Thursday, a lawyer who represents the accuser has challenged a medical report issued earlier this week that said the girl was 14 years old, but more than mentally young. Rao Abdur Raheem said the medical report should be ordered by a court and not the Government, which he said may have influenced the report.
The girl's lawyer, ' Tahir Ahmed Chaudhry, dismissed accusations of s ' Raheem and said he hoped that the Court could settle the matter during a bail hearing for Saturday.
Human rights activists have called for her immediate release from ' 's police custody. Prominent Muslim clerics in Pakistan and the country's President ' have also called for an impartial probe in his case.
Rights groups say that the blasphemy law in Pakistan has been used to harass religious minorities and adjust their personal accounts. Amnesty International last week called on the Government to urgently reform the blasphemy laws and protect Masih and his family from potential intimidation or attack.
Last year, Pakistan's Minister for minorities ', Shahbaz Bhatti, the only Christian member of the Federal Cabinet, was assassinated in Islamabad. And province of Punjab's Governor, ' Salman Taseer, was assassinated by one of his bodyguards to oppose controversial blasphemy law.
Christians are the largest religious minority in Pakistan, non-Muslims, who make up about five percent of the population.
The United States has called ' Masih's case "deeply disturbing" and urged Pakistan's Government ' to protect not only its citizens religious minorities, but also women and girls.
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