Apex court stays execution of Asia Bibi

Published
64

LAHORE: Staying the execution of a Christian woman, Asia Bibi, the Supreme Court of Pakistan on Wednesday admitted for hearing a petition filed by the death-row prisoner who was convicted on blasphemy charges.

A three-member bench at the Supreme Court's Lahore registry admitted the petition for full hearing and also ordered for all records pertaining to the case to be presented before it.

Read: On death row for blasphemy, Asia Bibi makes final appeal to SC

In her petition, the 50-year-old woman has claimed that she had not made any blasphemous remarks, and rather residents of her neighbourhood had leveled the blasphemy allegations against her based on a personal feud.

She asked the court to strike down her death sentence.

Mother of five children, Asia Bibi has been on death row since November 2010 after being convicted of committing blasphemy during an argument with a Muslim woman over a bowl of water in 2009.

She had filed an appeal in the Supreme Court in November 2014 as her final legal recourse, one month after the Lahore High Court upheld the death sentence of Asia Bibi, dashing hopes the conviction might be overturned or commuted to a jail term.

Blasphemy is an extremely sensitive issue in Pakistan where 97 per cent of the population is Muslim and unproven claims regularly lead to mob violence.

Also read: Asia Bibi losing hope on death row: family

Two high-profile politicians – then Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer and minorities minister Shahbaz Bhatti – were murdered in 2011 after calling for reforms to the blasphemy law and describing Bibi's trial as flawed.

Pakistan's tough blasphemy laws have attracted criticism from rights groups, who say they are frequently misused to settle personal scores.

Lawyers who defend people accused of blasphemy — and judges seen as lenient — also risk being accused of the crime themselves and regularly face intimidation.

Opinion

Editorial

Expanding conflict
31 Jul, 2026

Expanding conflict

WITH neither of the belligerents willing to back down, and the theatre of conflict expanding geographically, the...
Spoils and spats
31 Jul, 2026

Spoils and spats

A FIGHT over assembly seats in Azad Jammu and Kashmir has laid bare what seem to be some deep resentments between ...
Unfair tax system
31 Jul, 2026

Unfair tax system

THE disclosure that the FBR collected nearly Rs1.9tr in sales and income taxes through electricity bills over the...
Debt that stays
30 Jul, 2026

Debt that stays

THE power sector’s circular debt grew by Rs61bn in the last fiscal year, taking the total to roughly Rs1.67tr from...
HIV warning
30 Jul, 2026

HIV warning

THE HIV infections detected around two SESSI-run hospitals in Karachi demand far more than another hurried committee...
End trafficking
30 Jul, 2026

End trafficking

MODERN slavery, in the form of human trafficking, is among the state’s gravest failures. Scores of Pakistanis are...