Woman freed after 14 years

The LHC has acquitted a 55-year-old psychologically-challenged woman charged with defiling the Holy Quran.

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) has acquitted a 55-year-old psychologically-challenged woman charged with defiling the Holy Quran.

Zaibunisa had been locked away in the prison section of a psychiatric hospital for 14 years, despite her mental illness.

While hearing the petition filed by Zaibunisa’s lawyer Aftab Ahmed Bajwa, LHC Chief Justice Khwaja Muhammad Sharif said it was against Islamic injunctions to convict an innocent person of a crime.

The government and police should only arrest an accused in such cases after a high-level investigation, the CJ said.

Bajwa told the court that Zaibunisa had been kept in jail cell for 14 years for a crime she never committed.

He said Zaibunisa claimed the police had locked her up because they were being pressurised by religious extremists in the area.

Bajwa informed the court that Zaibunisa suffered from schizophrenia, and could not have committed blasphemy deliberately. He also said that Zaibunisa had no relatives who could have taken her case to court earlier to prove her innocence. After hearing Bajwa’s arguements, the CJ asked the complainant, Qari Muhammad Hafeez Qazi, if he had any evidence to prove Zaibunisa’s involvement in the incident. Qazi replied that he had no such evidence.

Additional Advocate General Muhammad Hanif Khatana was also unable to link Zaibunisa to the alleged incident of blasphemy.

At this, the visibly astonished CJ asked the AAG if any government institution which could help destitute people like Zaibunisa get justice existed. If Zaibunisa’s case had not been highlighted, the CJ continued, she might have died in her prison. Bajwa told The Express Tribune that Qazi had lodged an FIR in Rawalpindi against an unidentified accused for tearing pages from the Holy Quran. The FIR was registered on October 26, 1996. He said a charge-sheet against Zaibunisa was submitted before a judicial magistrate for her trial in the case and the magistrate had ordered that she undergo a medical examination. He added that, so far, seven medical boards had declared her mentally challenged but she had still not been released.

Bajwa told The Express Tribune that a social worker had told him about Zaibunisa’s case in November 2009, after which he had filed a petition in the LHC for her acquittal.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 23^rd, 2010.