MIANWALI, Sept 9: A ‘slip of tongue’ has proved too costly for a woman who has been languishing in jail for the last month.

A non-government organization, South Asian Partnership, organized a seminar on the proposed constitutional amendments at the local Press Club on Aug 7.

Speaking on the occasion, Kundian town councillor Rukhsana Bunyad, also a leader of Aurat Foundation, uttered ‘the constitution is more sacred than the Holy Quran.’

Hardly had the woman finished, a reporter of a national daily, Rana Muhammad Idrees, snubbed the lady and asked her to take back the words. In the heat of emotions, the woman retorted she had spoken the truth. Over this, Rana Idrees sent her out of the club and boycotted the function.

Accompanied by a group of journalists, he met SP Rao Sardar Ali Khan and got a case registered with the city police against the woman under section 295-A.

Meanwhile, seminar stage secretary Nawaz Salar tried to settle dust, claiming the woman (Rukhsana) did not mean what she said.

The next morning’s newspapers carried the ‘blasphemy’ news and JUP Secretary-General, Piplan tehsil Naib Nazim Safdar Shah’s, statement who had formulated a death squad to kill the woman. Safdar Shah also got cancelled Rukhsana’s membership of the council.

Two days later on Aug 9 (Friday), almost all the mosques in Mianwali proclaimed ‘the woman blasphemer.’ After a couple of days, a group of journalists requested the complainant to pardon the woman on humanitarian grounds. However, excuse was not the fortune of the woman.

Arrested on Aug 15 after cancellation of her interim bail, Rukhsana had been pining in the Mianwali Central Jail. Senior Civil Judge rejected her final bail application on Aug 20.

Subsequently, a panel of lawyers, including Azizur Rahman Awan, Malik Saleem Iqbal, Saadat Husain Bokhari, Asma Jahangir and Democratic Human Rights Programme in-charge Ghulam Abbas Shakir, pleaded her case.

Despite her pleas, the local NGOs persisted to fight a legal war just to ‘extort’ money from the donors. No body has financially helped the poor lady.