Asia Bibi protection asked by House

(ANSA) - Rome, November 8 - The Lower House foreign affairs committee on Thursday approved a resolution to protect Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman condemned to death by hanging for blasphemy eight years ago but recently acquitted by the Supreme Court, but who cannot leave the country because of fundamentalist Islamic protests, and her family.
    Bibi's husband on Tuesday appealed to Italy for help in getting out of Pakistan.
    "I ask the Italian government and make an appeal: help us get out of Pakistan, me and my family, because we are in danger", he said.
    Ashiq Masih made his appeal in a video message to the Aiuto all Chiesa che Soffre (Help A Suffering Church) group.
    Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said in reply that the government was working with other western countries "with discretion" to help Bibi and her family leave Pakistan.
    "We are working on it with other western countries, with discretion to avert problems on the ground for the family that wants to have a future," he said.
    "I can assure you that I, as a minister but also as a League member, care that woman and children who risk their lives should have a future".
    As well as being interior minister, Salvini is deputy premier and leader of the anti-migrant Euroskeptic League party, one of the two government partners along with he anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) of the other deputy premier, Labour and Industry Minister Luigi Di Maio.