Pakistan court acquits Christian woman of blasphemy
A Christian woman kept on death row in Pakistan for nearly a decade was freed after her conviction for blasphemy was overturned by the country’s highest court yesterday.
Asia Bibi was acquitted of defaming the Prophet Mohammed in a case that outraged Christians worldwide and become a source of deep division in Pakistan.
The ruling by Pakistan’s Chief Justice Saqib Nisar sparked protests from hardline Islamist parties, who had threatened to paralyse the country if Ms Bibi was spared.
Demonstrations blocking major roads in the country were spreading by mid-afternoon, paralysing parts of Islamabad, Lahore and other cities.
Supporters of political party Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP), which was founded to support blasphemy laws, were among the demonstrators.
Ms Bibi’s case became a symbol of the growing extremism in the country after two politicians who tried to help her were assassinated.
There have already been threats against the judge behind yesterday’s ruling.
“They all three deserve to be killed,” TLP co-founder Muhammad Afzal Qadri told a protest in Lahore.
“Either their security should kill them, their driver kill them, or their cook kill them. Whoever has any access to them, kill them before the evening.”
Mr Qadri also called for the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan to be brought down and for army officers to rise up against military chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, who “should be sacked from the army”.
Extra police were called in to guard government buildings in Islamabad and to protect Christian neighbourhoods.
By late afternoon, two other movements – including one led by Hafiz Saeed, who has a $10 million (Dh36.7m) US bounty on his head for his claimed involvement in the 2008 Mumbai attacks – announced that they would also join the protests.
Feelings are running so high that the mother of four is expected to leave the country and apply for asylum overseas almost immediately.
Western embassies are understood to have been planning for weeks to help her out of the country if she were acquitted.
“The appeal is allowed,” Chief Justice Saqib Nisar said in the ruling. “She has been acquitted. The judgment of high court as well as trial court is reversed. Her conviction is set aside.”
Ms Bibi’s ordeal began in 2009, when she was working in a field and was asked to fetch water. Muslim women working alongside her objected, saying that as a non-Muslim she was unfit to touch the water bowl.
The women complained to a local cleric and accused her of blasphemy, a charge punishable by death. Ms Bibi denied the charge but was eventually sentenced to hang.
The three-member appeal panel of Supreme Court justices questioned the case against her, which supporters always said was made up through malice.
Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, considered Pakistan’s top expert in criminal law, listed flaws in the proceedings.
“I don’t see any derogatory remarks vis-a-vis the holy Quran,” Mr Nisar said.
One of Ms Bibi’s daughters, Eisham Ashiq, described her mother’s acquittal as “the most wonderful moment in my life”.
“I want to hug my mother and then celebrate with my family,” Ms Ashiq said. “I am grateful to God for listening to our prayers.”
The verdict was welcomed by human rights groups.
“There is every reason to be relieved at Asia Bibi’s acquittal and every reason to reflect yet again on how and why the blasphemy laws are open to being so easily used to settle personal grievances,” the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said.
The sparked international condemnation and Pope Benedict XVI called for her release in 2010.
A report this year by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom said about 40 people were on death row or serving life sentences in Pakistan for blasphemy.
Accusations are so charged that others have been killed or burnt in ovens by street mobs.
Rights groups say anti-blasphemy legislation has been used to justify censorship, persecution and even murder.
The issue has also become a political weapon, with accusations of being soft on blasphemy used to silence or smear critics.
In 2011, Salmaan Taseer, the governor of Pakistan’s most populous province Punjab, was assassinated by his bodyguard after calling for Ms Bibi’s release and reform of blasphemy laws.
His killer, Mumtaz Qadri, was executed in 2016 and has been feted as a hero by hardliners.
But politicians, including Mr Khan, invoked blasphemy during a general election this summer and have vowed to defend the laws. The TLP this month warned the court against any “concession or softness” for Ms Bibi.
“If there is any attempt to hand her over to a foreign country, there will be terrible consequences,” the party said before yesterday’s ruling.