Pakistan: Rape law changes spark rallies

More than 10,000 supporters of Pakistan’s President General Pervez Musharraf rallied in Karachi today to praise amendments by politicians to the country’s controversial Islamic rape laws.

Pakistan’s lower house of Parliament on Wednesday passed the Protection of Women Bill, which amended the 1979 Hudood Ordinance by ditching the death penalty for extra-marital sex and revising a clause on making victims produce four witnesses to prove rape cases.