UK councillor to meet Taseer for Aasia talks

Raza Anjum is in Pakistan to campaign for her release.

LAHORE: Raza Anjum, the youngest councilor of United Kingdom, is scheduled to arrive in Lahore on December 22 to meet Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer.

Anjum, who was elected councilor from Saffron Walden in 2007, landed in Pakistan last week to launch a campaign for release of Aasia Bibi, a Chirstian woman who had been sentenced to death by a lower court for blasphemy.

Talking to The Express Tribune over the telephone from Islamabad, Anjum said that he has so far met Federal Minister for Minorities Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti and the federal secretary for minorities. The minister, he said, agreed with him that Aasia Bibi should not get punished for a crime she did not commit. However, he added, the minister said that the matter was sub-judice and would be heard by the Lahore High Court.

Aasia Bibi is confined at the Sheikhupuira Jail. Her appeal against the lower court’s sentence is pending in the LHC.

He said that he would also meet Aasia Bibi’s lawyer during his Lahore visit, adding that then he would go to her village in Nankana Sahib to collect facts related to the case. He said he would compile a report based on these facts and submit it to the UK embassy in Islamabad.

Anjum said he would spend Christmas day with Bibi at the Sheikhupura jail. He said that everyone who believed in justice, democracy and human rights had a duty to defend Aasia Bibi.

Blasphemy laws, he said, could easily be misused by people for settling personal scores. He said he was aware of a potential security threat during his stay in Pakistan and had taken precautions against it.

He plans to meet several senior government figures including Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer, PPP MNA Sherry Rehman and SCBA president Asma Jahangir during his stay. Anjum’s parents belong to Toba Tek Singh. He was elected a councilor from Saffron Walden in 2007 at the age of 22, becoming the youngest person to hold the post in UK.  Earlier, he studied law at the University College of London.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 20^th, 2010.