Daily Times

The Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan has fixed for hearing the appeal of Aasia Bibi, a Christian citizen from Nankana Sahib district, against her conviction in the blasphemy case in the next week.

Aasia Bibi is a death-row prisoner convicted in a blasphemy case in November 2010.

Saiful Malook, her counsel, told the media on Friday that the apex court contacted his office and sought three paper books of the case, which were provided to the court on Friday.

In April, Chief Justice Saqib Nisar had expressed his intention to take up the case, and he told the counsel that he would himself preside over the bench that would hear the case.

Aasia Bibi was arrested in June 2009, over an apparent argument with a group of women in her village. She was accused of blasphemy.

In 2010, a lower court awarded her capital punishment. In 2014, the Lahore High Court upheld her death sentence. However, a stay order was issued against her execution by the apex court in July 2015.

Her case was last heard on October 13, 2017, by a three-judge bench of the top court headed by the incumbent CJP and comprising Justice Iqbal Hameedur Rehman and Justice Manzoor Ahmad Malik.

The hearing was adjourned after Justice Rehman recused himself saying he was the chief justice of the Islamabad High Court when it heard the Salmaan Taseer assassination case.

Taseer, then governor Punjab, was assassinated on January 4, 2011 by his security guard in Islamabad’s Kohsar Market. In his confession before the trial court, Mumtaz Qadri admitted to having killed Taseer for his stance on blasphemy law. Qadri was handed death sentence on October 1, 2011. He was executed on February 29, 2016

Published in Daily Times, October 6^th 2018.