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Pak blasphemy hearing adjourned
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Thursday adjourned the hearing of a Christian woman’s final appeal against her death sentence in a blasphemy case for an indefinite
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Thursday adjourned the hearing of a Christian woman’s final appeal against her death sentence in a blasphemy case for an indefinite period.
A three-judge bench headed by Justice Mian Saqib Nisar adjourned the case of Aasia Bibi after Justice Iqbal Hameed-ur-Rehman recused himself from the case. “I was a part of the bench that was hearing the case of (former Punjab Governor) Salmaan Taseer, and this case is related to that,” he told the court.
The court did not immediately set a new date for the appeal. Taseer was assassinated in 2011 by Mumtaz Qadri, a policeman who was angered by the governor’s defence of Aasia Bibi after she was accused of blasphemy. Taseer had also called for reform of the controversial blasphemy laws. The court’s decision means the case will continue to be delayed, experts said.
Aasia Bibi will remain in jail as the judicial process drags on, they added. She was convicted and sentenced to hang in 2010 after an argument with a Muslim woman.
