Pakistani legislator Sherry Rehman has gone underground amid a rising controversy over her proposed amendments to the country’s blasphemy law.
She moved a bill in the National Assembly seeking amendments to the law, and also appeared on television. Changes in the law are being vehemently opposed by religious parties and groups.
Punjab governor Salman Taseer, assassinated earlier this month by his own bodyguard, had also favoured dilution of the law. The extremists have threatened Ms Rehman, a former information minister, that she might meet Taseer’s fate.
Some religious groups have issued a fatwa demanding death for her. There are demands that her bill be withdrawn from the Assembly.
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There is speculation that Ms Rehman has left the country on the advice of interior minister Rehman Malik, and it is believed she may be in Dubai. Her phones are not being answered and her mobile is switched off.