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Islamist hardliners protest as Pakistan awaits blasphemy ruling
LAHORE, Pakistan, Oct 12, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Several thousand Islamist
hardliners protested in Lahore Friday as Pakistan awaits a pivotal ruling in
the country’s most notorious blasphemy case, that of a Christian mother who
has been on death row since 2010.
The rally, organised by anti-blasphemy party Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan
(TLP), was the biggest of several in cities across Pakistan, with a few
hundred protesters also demonstrating in the southern port city of Karachi,
and in Rawalpindi, which neighbours Islamabad.
The Islamists demanded the execution of Asia Bibi be carried out, days
after Pakistan’s Supreme Court heard her final appeal.
The court said it had reached a judgement at the hearing on Monday, but
that it would not release it immediately for “reasons to be recorded later”,
and told media they could not publish comments on the inflammatory case.
Bibi is at the centre of the high-profile case which has divided
Pakistan and drawn prayers from the Vatican.
A Christian labourer, she was accused of blasphemy against the Prophet
Mohammed in 2009 by Muslim women she was working with in a field.
The charge is punishable by death under legislation that rights groups
say is routinely abused to settle personal vendettas.
Successive appeals against Bibi’s conviction have failed. If the Supreme
Court upholds it, the only recourse she will have will be a mercy petition to
the president.
Freedom in Pakistan, however, would mean a life under threat by
extremists.
The mere accusation of blasphemy is so explosive in the conservative
Muslim country that anyone even accused of insulting Islam risks a violent
and bloody death at the hands of vigilantes.
Also on Friday the Islamabad High Court said it had ruled on a petition
that would put Bibi on the no-fly list if she is released. It did not
immediately announce its judgement.
Pope Benedict XVI joined in international calls for Bibi’s release in
2010. In 2015 her daughter met with Pope Francis.
Calls for reform to Pakistan’s colonial-era blasphemy laws have been
rejected and met with violence.
Politicians including new Prime Minister Imran Khan invoked blasphemy
during this summer’s election, vowing to defend the laws.
BSS/AFP/RY/1958 hrs