Why No Justice Yet For Murdered Pakistani Christian Shahbaz Bhatti?

Justice for the murdered Pakistani Christian federal cabinet member Shahbaz Bhatti remains elusiveWorld Watch Monitor

Pakistai is not doing enough to secure justice for murdered Christian cabinet member Shahbaz Bhatti, say Pakistan's Chrstians, according to World Watch Monitor

The Christian community says the Pakistani political leadership is not doing enough to ask the police and the judiciary to ensure his killers are brought to justice 

Bhatti, a Catholic, aged 42, was leaving his Islamabad home when gunmen peppered his car with bullets, hitting him several times six years ago.

His murderers left leaflets describing him as a 'Christian infidel' at the scene.

The leaflets stated that he was murdered for heading a committee to review Pakistan's punitive blasphemy laws, often used to persecute Christians.

His support for Asia Bibi, the mother of five who is still on death row after she was convicted of blasphemy against Muhammad in 2010, also made him a target.

Last month, Pakistan's Dawn newspaper quoted religious affairs minister Sardar Mohammad Yousuf as saying that the federal government would reject any reform of the legislation.

'The law will remain as it is and those blaspheming ... will face the gallows,' he said.

Four years ago, a Taliban-affiliate suspect arrested for an attack on a Shi'ite mosque confessed in police custody that he was among those who had killed the minister.

Pakistan needs two witnesses to mount a successful prosecution.

The single witness to the shooting has fled to Thailand and, in fear for his life, has applied for asylum.

Bhatti had been an activist for most of his life, reports World Watch Monitor.

As a student he founded the Christian Liberation Front, which became the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance, which formed an alliance with the Pakistan People's Party, which then won general elections in 2008 and set up a government. The PPP created a ministry of Minority Affairs in November 2008 and appointed Shahbaz Bhatti as its first minister.