As per reports by Saif-ul-Mulook, lawyer of Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi who was released from jail and acquitted from death penalty last year, the now-free woman has reached Canada safely.
Asia, a resident of the Punjab province, was repeatedly threatened by religious extremists after her release. Until her departure, she was residing in a safe house, away from her five children who are already in Canada.
In 2010, Bibi was sent to gallows along with death sentence for an alleged act of blasphemy. She countered that the accusation was a revenge by her Muslim colleagues over an inconsequential spat.
Blasphemy is punished by a death sentence or life imprisonment as per the Pakistan Penal Code. The law has been severely criticized by international civil society though as it has been wrongly used against religious minorities in Pakistan.
However, in 2018, she was acquitted and released upon the orders of the then apex court chief justice, Saqib Nisar.
Before her release, the Islamist movement Tehreek-e-Labbaik (TLP) threatened to take dire actions in case of her acquittal. Consequently, mobs lashed out in Lahore and Islamabad, damaging public property, soon after the SC judgment.
The far-right extremists were placed into “protective custody,” while a government spokesman added that it was in the wake of public safety. Later, a deal was reached between the rightists and the incumbent government which subdued the latter’s opposition to the review petition filed by the religious extremists against Bibi’s acquittal.
International support for Bibi
The Christian community across the world showed solidarity with Asia Bibi. Moreover, the blasphemy law came to light and was severely criticized.
On the occasion of the Pope meeting her family, the Pontiff reportedly described Bibi as a “martyr,” according to Alessandro Mondeduro, president of the charity Aid to the Church in Need. Francis’ predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, had also called for Bibi’s release.
In her 2012 book, “Get Me Out of Here,” Bibi included a letter to her family urging them not to “lose courage or faith in Jesus Christ.”
The SC verdict
Quoting Shakespeare’s “King Lear,” the SC in its October 2018 ruling said that Bibi appeared to have been “more sinned against than sinning.”
“Even if there was some grain of truth in the allegations leveled in this case against the appellant still the glaring contradictions in the evidence of the prosecution highlighted above clearly show that the truth in this case had been mixed with a lot which was untrue,” the ruling said.
Earlier this year, Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa said, “We are not hearing the case again, the lawyer was unable to point out a single error in the judgment”. Thus, dismissing the review petition on the grounds of insufficient evidence.
“We have to look at the value of the statements by witnesses, how can we hang someone on a false witness statement.”
