Bhutto must defy the mullahs : LEADING ARTICLE

THIS WEEK Pakistan has a chance to demonstrate that it still belongs to the civilised world, a status it is clinging to by its fingertips. Tomorrow the High Court in Lahore will resume the appeal by a 14-year- old Christian boy, Salamat Masih, against his conviction for blasphemy. If the appeal fails, he will be executed for insulting the Prophet. His 23-year-old uncle, Rehmat Masih, faces the same punishment for the same offence. Last April religious fanatics shot and killed another uncle, who was a third defendant.

This is a disgraceful case, which brings great discredit to Pakistan's legal system, to the name of Islam, and to the Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto. Salamat Masih stands accused of writing graffiti, aged 11, on the wall of a mosque in his Punjab village. Only three witnesses saw this graffiti. One has since withdrawn his evidence, one cannot read, none can agree on whether the culprit was the boy or his relatives. Salamat learnt to write only after he went to jail. The judge who convicted him in a lower court did so, it seems, in response to death threats from Muslim fanatics.

Salamat Masih is a victim many times over. A victim of his family's Christian identity in a country increasingly intolerant of its tiny religious minorities; a victim of a village feud; a victim of a harsh blasphemy law introduced to appease Muslim fundamentalists; and a victim of crazed mobs that have cowed Pakistan's politicians and judiciary. Let us pray that he does not, lastly, become a victim of prime ministerial fear and humbug. Ms Bhutto knows the cruelty that religious zealotry and crooked courts can cause; a similar combination hung her father. She is also, underneath the trappings of Islamic womanhood, a highly Westernised and liberal - even secular - woman. She should defy the mullahs and see that Salamat Masih receives mercy and justice.