Hundreds protest possible pardon for Aasia

Protest rally by banned outfit Jamat-ud-Dawa warns of anarchy if Aasia pardoned for blasphemy.

LAHORE: A religious party has threatened protests and anarchy if the government pardons Aasia Bibi, a Christian woman who has been sentenced to death for blasphemy, calling hundreds of demonstrators onto the streets on Friday.

Demonstrators marched in Lahore after the Sunni Ittehad Council urged the government to not grant clemency to Aasia Bibi a mother of five.

A crowd of several hundred called for “jihad” and pledged to sacrifice their lives to protect the honour of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).

The rally was organised by a subsidiary of banned charity Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), which the United Nations has blacklisted as a terrorist organisation.

“We will hold nationwide protests if the government pardons the Christian woman,” the subsidiary’s chief coordinator, Qari Yaqub, told participants.

Politicians and conservative clerics have been at loggerheads over whether President Asif Ali Zardari should pardon Bibi, who was sentenced on November 8 to hang under controversial blasphemy laws.

“The pardon will lead to anarchy in the country,” the head of the Sunni Ittehad Council, Sahibzada Fazal Kareem said. “Our stand is very clear, this punishment cannot be waived.”

Minority Affairs Minister Shahbaz Bhatti presented a clemency plea to the government late Thursday on the grounds that the case against Aasia was based only on personal enmity.

Pope Benedict XVI has also called for Bibi’s release.

But Farhatullah Babar, a spokesman for Zardari, hinted on Friday that the presidency would instead wait for Bibi’s appeal in the Lahore high court.

“The summary for a pardon has not yet been received from the prime minister. It is also premature as a sentence awarded by a sessions court cannot be implemented until it is endorsed by a high court,” Babar said.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 27^th, 2010.