ISLAMABAD, Oct 5: The Supreme Court will commence the hearing of a 2014 appeal by Aasia Bibi, a condemned Christian woman, on blasphemy charges on Monday (Oct 8).

The bench will consist of Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, Justice Asif Saeed Khosa and Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel. Advocate Saiful Malook will plead Aasia’s case.

The last time the case of Aasia Bibi, a mother of two children, was taken up by a bench of the Supreme Court was on Oct 13, 2016. The three-judge bench consisted of Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, Justice Iqbal Hameedur Rehman and Justice Manzoor Ahmad Malik. Later Justice Rehman resig­ned as judge of the Supreme Court.

But the hearing was postponed immediately after the commencement of the case since Justice Iqbal Hameedur Rehman recused himself from hearing the case as he had previously heard a petition filed by Malik Muhammad Mumtaz Qadri, a bodyguard of former Punjab governor Salman Taseer who assassinated the governor in the federal capital on Jan 4, 2011.

Salman Taseer had kicked up a storm by visiting Aasia Bibi inside a jail in Lahore, receiving her mercy petition and calling for amending the blasphemy law.

On Oct 11, 2011, Justice Rehman was a member of the High Court division bench which stayed the execution of Mumtaz Qadri, who was convicted of governor Taseer’s murder a few days before.

While postponing further hearing on Oct 13, the Supreme Court had stated that Justice Rehman believed his presence on the bench might prejudice the Aasia Bibi case since it was closely linked to that of Salman Taseer.

Likewise, the apex court turned down a request for early hearing of the case on April 26 last year.

On July 22, 2015, a three-judge Supreme Court bench, also headed by Justice Nisar, had suspended the Oct 2014 Lahore High Court verdict of upholding the Nov 2010 trial court’s decision to award her the death sentencing on a charge of committing blasphemy during an argument with a Muslim woman in Sheikhupura in June 2009.

In her appeal, Aasia Bibi pleaded that the high court, while upholding the trial court’s sentence, failed to take into consideration a statement made by the petitioner under Section 342 CrPC wherein she had clearly stated that she had offered to police that she was ready to state on oath that she had never passed derogatory remarks against the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) and the Holy Quran.

“But since the police had conspired with the complainant, they falsely booked her in this case. Moreover, the prosecution witnesses were sisters and implicated the petitioner in the matter as they both felt humiliated after an argument between them,” the appeal stated.

She also contended that the high court had failed to give her the benefit of the doubt on account of a long delay of five days in registration of the FIR against her.

Although it is a principle of criminal law, the appeal argued, an unexplained delay in the registration of a criminal case threw serious doubts on the veracity of evidence. She cited the 2002 Ayub Masih case in this regard.

Aasia Bibi said in her petition that she had been living in Sheikhupura since her birth and no complaint was ever brought against her. The high court also failed to insist on a test to ascertain the standard of credibility of the witnesses since the offence with which the petitioner was charged clearly fell in the ambit of “Hadd”, she added.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2018