Breaching privileges?: Blasphemy accused minor ‘denied meeting with lawyer’
A lawyer for Rimsha Masih, a Christian girl arrested on blasphemy charges – whose case has prompted international fury from rights campaigners – claimed on Thursday he had been refused a meeting with her.
Police arrested Rimsha, who reportedly has Down’s Syndrome, from a low-income neighbourhood of the capital last Thursday after she was accused of burning papers containing verses from the Holy Quran, and remanded her for 14 days in the juvenile section of Adiyala jail.
Rimsha, aged between 11 and 16, is being held in a jail in Rawalpindi.
“The lawyers are facing difficulties to see the accused girl. The jail authorities have told them to get permission from the top authorities,” Shamaun Alfred Gill, a spokesman for All Pakistan Minorities Alliance (APMA) said. Her legal team said they had approached the higher authorities in Punjab but could not get a go ahead for the meeting.
“I myself contacted the inspector general (of prisons) by phone and he told me that he will call me back, but I am still waiting to speak to him,” Tahir Naveed Chaudhry, one of Rimsha’s lawyers said. “He is not receiving my calls now. Legally, they can’t stop a lawyer seeing his client in the jail but the authorities are refusing us a meeting.”
But Farooq Nazir, the inspector-general of Punjab prisons, told AFP there was no restriction on Rimsha meeting her lawyer or immediate family and insisted she was being cared for.
Chaudhry told The Express that Irshad Bibi, Rimsha’s mother would move a bail application on Friday (today) for the release of her daughter.
He added that they have also filed an application with a court in Islamabad to set up a medical panel to determine Rimsha’s age.
Appeal to chief justice
Hundreds of Christian families, who fled the suburb in Islamabad fearing backlash after Rimsha’s arrest on blasphemy charges, appealed to Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Thursday to ensure their security. (Additional input from AFP)
Published in The Express Tribune, August 24th, 2012.
COMMENTS (7)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
1732549780-0/Speaker-Na-photo-22_04_2014-(1)1732549780-0-270x192.webp "negotiations underway between government pti over sit in venue")
{Chaudhry told The Express that Irshad Bibi, Rimsha’s mother would move a bail application on Friday (today) for the release of her daughter"
Please dont do it if you value the life of your daughter. Although in some case even jail has proved to be insecure to save the life of accused in such cases.
A 10 year old girl in Adiala Jail ?? What non-sense
@Raw is War: she is such a little girl of teen age ... so plz forgive her .. if she does a mistake ...plz forgive her ... i don't know is it true or not .. but i know she is innocent girl ..
what do we expect from u guys?
Show me one country in the wide world which has people following only one religion. In the vast majority of countries there are people of various religions. No one has a right to say that any one religion is superior to the others. For that matter, as Jinnah said, religion is a matter within the personal domain of citizens: the State does not have a religion. Therefore, countries that professedly are "Islamic countries" are living a contradiction. It was an error when Pakistan chose to be an Islamic republic. With that funbdamental error written into the constitution, Pakistan has no hope of emerging ever - repeat, ever - as a modern country. It will continue to be wedded to medievalist ideas and shall go on treating all communities except Sunni Muslims as less than human. It is a question of time before minorities turn their back on Pakistan. Those of them who are meritorious shall make their mark in any society. But, of course, Pakistan has no use for such people - because maulanas tell the people of Pakistan every day that people other than Sunni Muslims are not human but a lower species yet to evolve to a human level. The fact is the maulanas themselves need to evolve. Otherwise, with the passage of time, they will become irrelevant: they are already anachronistic.
What a shame the CJ is blind folded on this matter as well as the 12 year Christian boy slaughtered in Faisalabad and one burned alive in Bahawalpur. I guess these will not make him a political hero. He only looks at PPP
"But Farooq Nazir, the inspector-general of Punjab prisons, told AFP there was no restriction on Rimsha meeting her lawyer or immediate family and insisted she was being cared for." This guy is full of you know what and then they call themselves Muslims, but then lying, cheating and corruption is the trade mark of Pakistani police and jail authorities.