HOPES HAVE been raised that a Christian Pakistani woman who has been sentenced to death for blasphemy will soon be pardoned, after government officials said she was innocent.
The case raised an international outcry, including a plea for mercy from the pope.
Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan’s minorities minister, said yesterday he was optimistic about Asia Bibi’s release, while Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab – where the conviction occurred – predicted an imminent award of clemency. President Asif Ali Zardari has the power to overturn any punishment handed down by the courts.
Bibi (45), was jailed after a row with some local Muslim women in a district near Lahore. She and the women argued while working in a field. They accused her of insulting the prophet Muhammad, leading to her arrest and subsequently her death sentence.
Even if Bibi, who has spent a year and a half in jail, is granted a presidential pardon, the blasphemy law in Pakistan is likely to remain in place.
Campaigners say the law is an instrument for terrorising minorities and has led to dozens being jailed each year on trumped-up charges, targeting Christians and an Islamic minority sect known as Ahmadis. “This is a disgraceful case, it is a disgraceful law. It has to be repealed,” Mr Taseer said.
Ali Dayan Hasan, a researcher for campaign group Human Rights Watch, said: “Asia Bibi’s release will not stop the injustice. That won’t end until this heinous law is repealed.”
It will be difficult to overturn the law, introduced in British colonial times but given venom in the 1980s by the Islamic fundamentalist military dictator Zia-ul-Haq. Any attempt to try and change the law will face popular opposition.
– ( Guardianservice)