Pak acquits Christian on death row
Imran appeals for calm as hardliners call for judges’ death
Islamabad, Oct. 31: Soon after Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned the conviction of Asia Bibi, a Christian mother facing execution for blasphemy, extremists called for the justices to be murdered, forcing Prime Minister Imran Khan to hit out at religious hardliners and appeal for calm.
Mr Khan, who took to the nation’s airwaves several hours after the court ordered the acquittal of Asia, delivered a forceful call for Pakistanis to respect the verdict which sparked protests across the country.
“They are inciting you for their own political gain, you should not get trapped by them for the sake of the country, they are doing no service to Islam,” Mr Khan said in a televised broadcast.
“We will protect people’s properties and lives, we will not allow any sabotage, we will not allow any traffic to be stopped,” he added.
After hearing Pakistan’s Chief Justice Saqib Nisar quash her conviction nearly eight years after she was first sentenced to death in the landmark case which has incited deadly violence and reached as far as the Vatican, Asis appeared to be in state of disbelief.
“I can’t believe what I am hearing, will I go out now? Will they let me out, really?” she said on phone from prison after the ruling.
The case against Asia stems from an argument she had with a group of women in June 2009.
They were harvesting fruit when a row broke out about a bucket of water. The women said that because she had used a cup, they could no longer touch it, as her faith had made it unclean.
Prosecutors alleged that in the row which followed, the women said Asia Bibi should convert to Islam and that she made three offensive comments about the Prophet Muhammad in response.
She was later beaten up at her home, during which her accusers say she confessed to blasphemy. She was arrested after a police investigation.