MULTAN (TIP): Pakistan police are investigating thecountry’s ambassador to the United States for allegedlycommitting blasphemy in a television show three yearsago, officers said Thursday. Sherry Rehman, an ally ofPresident Asif Ali Zardari, who has been ambassador toWashington since late 2011, has been accused of blasphemyover remarks she made on a chat show in 2010. Thosefound guilty of defaming the Prophet Mohammed inPakistan can be sentenced to death.

People facing similaraccusations in the past have been forced into hiding oreven killed by lynch mobs. In late 2010 Rehman sparkedfury among religious groups as a lawmaker by lodging aprivate member’s bill seeking to abolish the death penaltyfor blasphemy after a Christian mother of five wassentenced to death. Her fellow campaigner, PPP politicianSalman Taseer, was murdered in January 2011. Twomonths later, minorities minister Shahbaz Bhatti was alsokilled.