Still No Justice for Asia Bibi -- Her Pakistan Supreme Court Appeal Is Adjourned for an Indefinite Period
The reason? One of the three judges suddenly abstained from hearing the case
By Dan Wooding, Founder of ASSIST News Service
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So
now, Ms. Bibi, must wait once again to learn if she will be spared the
gallows after the country’s top court adjourned amid tense scenes and
heightened security in Islamabad.
The
shocking postponement of her high profile case, which has drawn
world-wide attention, came about after Justice Iqbal Hameed-ur-Rehman
abstained from the three-member bench, who were supposed to hear her
appeal, when he told the court, “I was a member of the bench hearing the
case of Salman Taseer (the then Governor of Punjab who was murdered for
his support of Asia Bibi) and this case is related to that.” He then
withdrew and the hearing was adjourned.
Now a new judge will have to be appointed, and there is no indication that this will take place soon.
Saif-ul-Mulook,
the lawyer representing Asia Bibi, objected to the adjournment, but his
protest was overruled and the bench refused to hear his objection.
“I
was very well prepared and hopeful for the decision, but the case is
adjourned and no new date is fixed for the hearing,” he told The Telegraph in the UK.
Writing
on my Facebook pages, Marion Burdon from Birmingham, England,
commented, “So he [the judge] waited until court proceedings began
before declaring the so-called conflict of interest, which isn’t really
[the case] and he was not obliged to step down. Why did he not declare
the connection when he was asked to take this role? One would think he
wanted the further delay.”
On Thursday, 3,000 forces were deployed across the capital in anticipation of unrest or violence following a verdict.
In
a case that has drawn international outrage, Ms. Bibi was convicted in
2010 for defaming the Prophet Mohammad during an argument with a group
of Muslim women over a bowl of water. Not only did she deny that she
ever made the alleged blasphemous remarks, but she has also stated that
she had “great respect and honor for the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and the
Holy Quran.”
Asia
Bibi has been on death row since her 2010 conviction. Appeals at lower
courts have all failed, before the country’s top court temporarily
suspended her sentence in July 2015.
“If
Pakistan’s top court does not overturn her sentence, Mrs Bibi’s final
hope is a pardon from Mamnoon Hussain, the president of Pakistan,” said The Telegraph.
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Earlier,
clerics at Islamabad’s Lal Masjid, a mosque, vowed to take to the
streets and prevent the Pakistan government from functioning if Ms. Bibi
were released.
“Lal
Masjid will become a centre for the anti-government movement if [Asia
Bibi] is released,” a spokesman for the mosque’s foundation said.
According to The Telegraph,
Justice Iqbal Hameed-ur-Rehman was appointed to the supreme court in
2013, and led an inquiry into the deaths of eight Christians in Punjab’s
Gojra riots in 2009, which were sparked by false blasphemy allegations.
Activists
say Pakistan’s blasphemy laws are often used to persecute or settle
private vendettas against the country’s vulnerable Christian minority.
Pakistan-born,
Wilson Chowdhry, founder of the British Pakistani Christian Association
(BPCA), who is in Australia at this time meeting with politicians,
shared his disappointment, saying, “Asia Bibi has suffered another
postponement in her attempts to seek justice against the fabricated
blasphemy charge that has left her imprisoned in isolation for seven
years. Throughout her ad-infinitum legal saga, she has remained staunch
and true to her faith, firmly believing God will set her free.
“However,
each postponement, of which there were five during her failed High
Court appeal, part of her fortitude was palpably diminished. This latest
debacle evidences that the vaunted Supreme Court is not independent of
societal, cultural and political pressure, indicating that justice may
not be as easy to achieve as hoped through a frightened judiciary.
“Failing
the exoneration of Asia that the whole world is waiting for through
Pakistan’s failing legal system, her only hope will be a Presidential
pardon. No president has ever exercised this authority before and
President Mamnoon Hussain will be a very brave man to do this.”
So
once again, we see another example of so-called Pakistan justice with
Asia Bibi still incarcerated and held in solitary confinement after all
these years for the “crime” of speaking out for Jesus. So I ask you to
please pray that she will not lose hope and that, one day soon, she will
be pardoned and freed.
Photo
captions: 1) Asia Bibi. Will she ever get justice? 2) Her husband,
Ashiq Masih, with some of the family members. 3) Salman Taseer with Asia
Bibi as she is being finger printed. This meeting is believed to have
cost him his life. 4) Pakistani Muslims demand the execution of Asia
Bibi. 5) Supporters of the All Pakistan Minority Alliance (APMA) shout
slogans for the release of Asia Bibi (Credit: Rahat Dar). 6) Dan Wooding
with his BPCA award.
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