Judges face threats ahead of key ruling

RELIGIOUS POLITICAL PARTY CALLS FOR PROTESTS AS BLASPHEMY VERDICT LOOMS

Religious hardliners in Pakistan yesterday threatened judges and announced protests as the country awaits a Supreme Court ruling on the fate of a Christian woman who faces becoming the first person to be executed for blasphemy.

Asia Bibi, who has been on death row since 2010, is at the centre of the high-profile case which has divided Pakistan and drawn prayers from the Vatican. Successive appeals against her conviction have failed.

On Monday the Supreme Court heard her last appeal and said it had reached a judgement, but refused to announce it immediately “for reasons to be recorded later”.

Yesterday Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP), a hardline religious political party — which had a strong showing in nationwide elections earlier this year — said in a press conference aired via YouTube that if she was freed the justices responsible would meet a “horrible” end. The group’s leaders also called for mass protests today.

TLP, founded in 2015, blockaded the capital Islamabad for several weeks last year calling for stricter enforcement of Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws. That protest forced the resignation of the federal law minister and paved the way for the group to poll more than 2.23 million votes in the July 25 general election, in what analysts called a “surprisingly” rapid rise.

Separately yesterday, a former spokesman for Islamabad’s Red Mosque moved to prevent Bibi from leaving the country by petitioning the capital’s High Court to put her on the no-fly list. That case will be heard tomorrow.

“Western forces are trying to get Asia Bibi out of the country but she should be hanged,” said Hafiz Ihtesham Ahmad, the petitioner.

Mercy petition

If the court upholds Bibi’s conviction, the only recourse she will have will be a mercy petition to the president.

The allegations against Bibi date back to 2009, when she was working in a field and was asked to fetch water.

Muslim women she was labouring with allegedly objected, saying that as a non-Muslim she was unfit to touch the water bowl. The women went to a local cleric and accused Bibi of blasphemy.