By DPA
Islamabad : The speaker of a Pakistan provincial legislative assembly Thursday said those who blasphemed were "liable to death", during debate on Britain's knighting of author Salman Rushdie.
"A blasphemer is liable to death, I will murder a blasphemer if he comes across me," the speaker of the assembly of central Punjab province, Afzal Sahi, said.
Britain's knighting of the author, whose 1988 book "The Satanic Verses" is considered blasphemous by many Muslims, has sparked an angry response in Pakistan, Iran, Malaysia and other parts of the Muslim world.
Sahi's comments follow a call by former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto for the dismissal of Minister for Religious Affairs Ijaz-ul-Haq for saying the honour for Rushdie could be seen by some Muslims as a justification for suicide attacks.
The Pakistan Ulema Council, a private body of more than 2,000 Islamic scholars, on Thursday conferred the honour title of "Saifullah" or Sword of God on Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in an apparent response.
"We have awarded this title in reply to Britain's decision to knight blasphemer Rushdie," the council's chairman Tahir Ashrafi told DPA.