ISLAMABAD: Jamiat Ulema-Islam (Fazl) secretary general Senator Abdul Ghafoor Haideri has alleged that the apex court released Aasia Bibi — a Christian woman who spent eight years on death row after being convicted of having committed blasphemy before she was finally acquitted and released by the Supreme Court — due to pressure from the West and that the Western powers had conspired to bring Imran khan to power to “soften the blasphemy laws”. Senator Haideri said that the people had lost confidence in the judicial system which was struggling to improve its tarnished image.

Speaking at his party’s ‘Azadi march’ sit-in, Mr Haideri reiterated the warning that soon there would be a complete lockdown of the country if the government did not resign.

“Azadi March is a movement and it will spread all over the country. We will block highways, we will block motorways and we will lock down the entire country if you [Prime Minister Imran Khan) do not leave the government,” he said without specifying any schedule for the lockdown.

Meanwhile, rumours are doing the rounds in the capital that the JUI-F would proceed with its lockdown plans from Monday.

Senator Haidari recalled that Aasia Bibi was convicted of committing blasphemy by the trial court as well as by the Lahore High Court.

“At this the West felt that things [in Pakistan] were not right according to their views so they started to conspire and pressurised the courts. Eventually they waited till Imran Khan came to power and then the pressure on courts worked as planned,” the JUI-F leader said. “Finally Aasia Bibi was released and hurriedly sent abroad.”

Mr Haideri said the government was only trying to appease the West and they were in power only to do whatever the Western powers wanted.

“But they will never succeed because the people of Pakistan are aware of these conspiracies,” Senator Haideri said.

Then he started telling the crowd about his efforts to block the amendments to blasphemy laws and his arguments with Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani on the amendments that would award the same punishment to the accuser if he / she were not able to prove blasphemy charges on the accused.

“The worst part is that people can hire witnesses in all kind of cases for even as low as Rs500 per hearing and if blasphemy laws are softened things will go bad,” he said, adding that eventually the amendment was withdrawn by the government.

Other speakers belonging to the seminaries declared JUI-F chief Maulana Fazalur Rehman the next leader of the country equating him with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Malaysian leader Mahathir Muhammad.

On the occasion of Eid Miladun Nabi (peace be upon him), the JUI-F dharna was converted into a Seerat conference, but several speakers there also chose to talk about politics.

Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2019