PARIS: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday his government was holding talks with Pakistan over potentially offering asylum to Aasia Bibi, who was recently freed from prison after her blasphemy conviction was overturned.

“We are in discussions with the Pakistani government,” Mr Trudeau said in an interview with AFP in Paris, where he was attending a peace conference organised by French President Emmanuel Macron.

“There is a delicate domestic context that we respect which is why I don’t want to say any more about that, but I will remind people Canada is a welcoming country,” he said.

Fake images

The Pakistani government, after tackling a crisis surrounding Aasia’s acquittal, now has to deal with “fake” images on social media purporting to show her outside the country.

The deceptive images have prompted death threats to a lawmaker shown in one photograph, and are likely intended to whip up religious fervour over Aasia’s case. It’s unclear who is behind the circulation of the images.

Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry slammed the “fake” postings on Monday, one of which claims to show Aasia meeting Pope Francis. The photo is actually of Aasia’s daughter two years ago.

Fawad Chaudhry said the images misidentifying Aasia prompted death threats to a lawmaker in one photograph, Fazal Khan from the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf.

“People can even be killed because of such fake postings,” he said. The pictures were widely circulated on social media in Pakistan and shared on several local journalists’ groups, even a police and a media group.

“We are trying to seek cooperation from Twitter and Facebook against such fake news,” Mr Chaudhry added.

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2018