Archbishop of Canterbury Williams was in mainly Muslim Pakistan to see the aftermath of the massive South Asian earthquake.

The Church of England leader said he feared the law was being used to “settle private scores”.

Pakistan’s blasphemy law says that desecrating the Quran, the Muslim holy book, is punishable by death. Christians have argued that it is used as an excuse to attack them.

Earlier this month, a Muslim mob in eastern Pakistan burnt down churches and ransacked a school over allegations that a Christian had burnt the Quran.

Williams said the laws were a worry “not so much about the idea of a law against blasphemy as about a law whose penalty is so severe and whose practice gives so many loopholes to allow people to settle private scores by appealing to blasphemy laws”, the BBC reported Wednesday.

He added that he had asked Musharraf to look again at the way the law was being applied.

Christians make up less than three percent of Pakistan’s mainly Muslim population of 150 million.

Four leading Christian organisations at a meeting in Lahore earlier in November demanded an immediate repeal of the blasphemy law, a Christian community leader, Peter Jacob, told AFP.

“Blasphemy law has always acted as a lethal sword against the minority communities. Its repeal is our longstanding demand,” he said.

Williams arrived in Pakistan on Tuesday and on Wednesday visited a camp on the outskirts of the capital Islamabad for refugees left homeless by the October 8 disaster.