PHOTO: AFP
LAHORE:
An additional district and sessions judge on Monday reserved his ruling on an application seeking an inquiry into the mental health of a woman accused of blasphemy.
Counsel for Salma Tanveer, the petitioner, said that the judge had directed police to get her mentally examined when she was first brought before court.
However, the inquiry had been stopped. He said that he had sought bail for her on medical grounds.
The counsel for the complainant stated that the defence was using the tactics to delay the outcome of the case.
He claimed that the accused was of sound mind.
Salma Tanveer, aged 40, was arrested on September 2, 2013, on accusation of blasphemy. According to the FIR registered on the complaint of Qari Iftikhar Ahmed under Section 295 C of the Pakistan Penal Code, Tanveer distributed handwritten notes among residents of Nishtar Colony in which she allegedly claimed to be a prophet.
As the trial had continued, a man and his wife had also submitted an affidavit stating that some people had implicated Salma Tanveer in a false case.
They said Tanveer was the principal of a school where their children had studied for free for many years.
They said the people had implicated Tanveer in the case after she refused to continue teaching the children for free, they said. They had also borrowed some money from her and did not return it when she asked them too.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 1st, 2016.
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