ISLAMABAD — A Pakistani Christian family whose mother has been sentenced to death for insulting Islam has gone into hiding because of death threats, they said Wednesday.
Politicians and conservative clerics are at loggerheads on whether President Asif Ali Zardari should pardon Asia Bibi, a mother of five sentenced to hang for defaming the Prophet Mohammed under controversial blasphemy laws.
Pakistan's minister for minority affairs, Shahbaz Bhatti, who is himself a Christian, told reporters that Asia's family had been forced to flee their home but declined to say where they were staying because of security fears.
Asia's husband, Ashiq Masih, who works in a brick factory in the Shekhupura district near Lahore, said he and his children aged nine to 20 had left home because of death threats, but declined to say where they were now living.
"We are frightened. We are receiving threats, especially from clerics. They started demonstrations in the area," he told reporters in Bhatti's Islamabad office, accompanied by daughters Eesham, nine, and Sidra, 18.
"Yesterday there was a protest in Shekhupura. They said they will not leave Asia Bibi alive if she is pardoned."
Rights activists say Pakistan's blasphemy law, under which the offence is punishable by death, encourages Islamist extremism in a conservative Muslim country on the front line of the US-led war on Al-Qaeda.
Masih said the case was baseless and that the family were "not mad to insult any prophet, religion or the Koran", telling how his children broke down in tears when they found out about their mother's plight.
Bhatti said he would submit a petition from the family asking Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to pardon Asia.
"Today they have given me a mercy petition for the prime minister. I will submit it to the prime minister this week. The case is baseless," said Bhatti.
The governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer, has also said he will pass on a petition for clemency to the Pakistani president.
Pope Benedict XVI last week called for Bibi's release and said Christians in Pakistan were "often victims of violence and discrimination."
Asia has filed a separate appeal against the verdict, but no date has been set for a court hearing.
The case began in June 2009 when she was asked to fetch water while working in the fields. Muslim women labourers objected, saying that as a non-Muslim, she should not touch the water bowl.
Bibi was later mobbed by crowds, arrested and prosecuted after Muslim women complained that she made derogatory remarks about the Prophet Mohammed.
Only around three percent of Pakistan's population of 167 million are estimated to be non-Muslim.
Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved.
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Government will protect Aasia, Bhatti assures family
* Minority Affairs minister says Aasia is innocent according to his research
* Convict’s husband says his family facing threats from radical forces
By Mahtab Bashir
* Convict’s husband says his family facing threats from radical forces
By Mahtab Bashir
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ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Minority Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti on Wednesday assured Aasia Bibi’s family that his ministry would protect her, saying that according to his research she was innocent.
ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Minority Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti on Wednesday assured Aasia Bibi’s family that his ministry would protect her, saying that according to his research she was innocent.
Aasia’s family, including her husband and daughters, met the minister at his office and handed him a mercy plea. Bhatti told reporters that he would submit a comprehensive report to Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani within a week and plead for mercy in her case. Aasia Bibi, a peasant, was sentenced to death by lower courts for blasphemy. She pleaded that she was falsely accused by a group of Muslim women angry at a dispute over whether they could share the same water bowl. A court sentenced her on November 8 to hang after convicting her of blasphemy. It is the first time a woman has been condemned to death under the blasphemy law.
Bhatti said his ministry was working diligently for a peaceful solution of the issue and will use all legal and constitutional ways to have her pardoned. “I am confident that President Asif Ali Zardari would pardon Aasia … because she had been falsely accused,” he added.
According to the ministry’s investigation, Bhatti said, it was a personal dispute and she had not committed blasphemy. He said that President Zardari had asked him to investigate the case. “I will hopefully submit my report to the prime minister soon after he comes back from abroad and would recommend him to grant pardon to Aasia,” he added. “She is innocent and the case against her is concocted and baseless,” Bhatti emphasised.
Aasia’s husband Aashiq Hussain told Daily Times that his family faced threats from radical forces. “They are threatening my daughters,” Hussain said. He appealed President Zardari to pardon his wife, saying she was innocent. (daily times)
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| Pakistan row over possible pardon |
A possible presidential pardon for a Christian woman accused of blasphemy against Prophet Muhammad sparks anger. Last Modified: 24 Nov 2010 23:29 GMT |
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| Shahbaz Bhatti, the Pakistani minister of minority affairs (R) is preparing the report for Zardari on the case [AFP] |
Around 250 Muslims have staged a demonstration in the central Pakistani city of Lahore, warning the president not to pardon a Christian woman sentenced to death for allegedly insulting Islam.
Aasia Bibi, a 45-year-old mother of five who has spent a year-and-a-half in jail on charges of insulting Prophet Muhammad and the Quran, was due to be executed by hanging on November 8.
The protesters also denounced any attempt to change Pakistan's blasphemy law, which critics say is often misused to prosecute Christians and other minorities.
"We are ready to sacrifice our life for the Prophet Muhammad," chanted protesters in Lahore.
Bibi says that she has been falsely accused.
Under threat
Bibi's family is in hiding, and her husband said there have been threats on her life if she is released - with calls from the mosque in their village to burn down their home.
Bibi's husband, Ashiq Masih, said the family left their village after her arrest, leaving their children without school for more than a year.
But Mohammad Salim, the local cleric at the mosque who filed the original charge against Bibi, denied the claims and said there have been no threats against the woman or her family.
The death sentence against Bibi has prompted outrage from human rights groups and a personal appeal from Pope Benedict XVI for her freedom.
Her lawyer has filed an appeal with a higher court in Lahore, but she could also be pardoned by the president.
Possible pardon
Asif Ali Zardari, the Pakistani president, has asked for a review of the facts of the case, raising the possibility of a presidential pardon. One of the strongest defenders of Bibi has been Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab province, of which Lahore is the capital. Wednesday's protest took place in front of the governor's office and the demonstrators railed against him and others calling for Bibi's release.
"We are here to tell them that we will not let it happen," said Masoodur Rehman, one of the leaders of the group that organised the rally.
"Only the court should decide her fate."
Shahbaz Bhatti, the minister for minority affairs, who is preparing the report for Zardari on the case, said he would deliver his recommendations on Thursday.
Pakistan's Christians, who make up less than 5 per cent of the Muslim-majority country's 175 million people, are frequently the targets of accusers invoking the blasphemy law.
(al jazeera)
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