Behind bars: Doctors summoned in alleged blasphemy case

The accused has been under arrest since 2012


Our Correspondent August 09, 2015
The accused has been under arrest since 2012. PHOTO: FILE

LAHORE: A sessions court summoned members of a medical board on Sunday in a case of alleged blasphemy.

The court issued the order after the defence counsel submitted a medical certificate signed by the board, comprising eight doctors stating that Waleeha Irfat, the accused, suffered from schizophrenia. An FIR was registered against her by the Factory Area police under the Pakistan Penal Code on the complaint of Abdul Monim Shah, a security guard. Irfat has been behind bars since her arrest in 2012.

On Sunday, counsel for the complainant Advocate Ghulam Mustafa Chaudhry objected to the medical certificate, claiming that the accused was an educated woman and had run a private school in her locality. He requested the court to dismiss the application.

Irfat has denied the charge. She has said that she was implicated in a fabricated case to blackmail her. She said the complainant and a prosecution witness had themselves stated in the FIR that they had not seen her commit blasphemy.

Chaudhry, however, had told the court that there was clear evidence against her and that she had been declared guilty in the subsequent investigation.

Irfat had attempted suicide in jail. At a previous hearing, Irfat had complained to the judge that women prisoners in the judicial lock-up had told her she deserved to be killed as a blasphemer.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 10th, 2015. 

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