Aasia Bibi’s release: UK councillor brings his campaign to Lahore

UK councillor urges government to take action against ‘hate speech’ of a Peshawar based cleric against Aasia Bibi.

LAHORE: UK councillor Raza Anjum has urged the federal government to take action against the ‘hate speech’ of a Peshawar based cleric against Aasia Bibi, he told The Express Tribune.

Anjum said he would present his findings on the Christian woman, who had been sentenced to death on blasphemy charges by a lower court, to the Eurporean Union’s political secretary Alexander on Wednesday. Aasia Bibi is currently imprisoned at the Sheikhupura jail. Her appeal is pending before the Lahore High Court.

Anjum, who arrived two weeks ago, has been meeting with government and opposition leaders and senior bureaucrats to push for the protection of Pakistan’s minority groups. He has met with Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer, Senior Adviser to the Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Zulfiqar Khan Khosa, provincial Law Secretary Shaukat Ali and Aasia Bibi’s lawyer.

Speaking with the Tribune, Anjum said that in his meeting with Governor Taseer, he pointed out the need for the authorities to control and detain those engaged in hate speeches, such as the cleric who recently promised a reward of Rs500,000 for anyone who killed Aasia Bibi even if she is acquitted or pardoned.

He said the government should take a firm line on such incidents. He observed that Article 506 of the Pakistan Penal Code prohibits threats to the life of another. He said the governor had assured him that his reservations would be conveyed to the federal government.

Anjum said the governor had told him that he had met with Aasia Bibi despite strong opposition from the local clerics. He added that Taseer informed him that his Pakistan Peoples Party’s MNA Sherry Rehman had moved a private bill for procedural changes in the blasphemy laws.Anjum said that if the federal government was scared of confronting the cleric who gave the edict against the Christian woman then the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) should take notice of it. Raza Anjum said that the UK High Commission had barred him from meeting Aasia Bibi in jail because of security threats. He added that he was scheduled to meet the prime minister to seek her release. After a three hour meeting with Khosa, Anjum said, he was disappointed to find that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader proposed no policy, structure or mechanism for the protection of minority rights and the promotion of human rights. He said that that PML-N apparently feared alienating its conservative voters.

Anjum said Taseer and Federal Minister Shahbaz Bhatti seemed to be more clear on minority issues as well as the concept of human rights.

Anjum said that he would use his Muslim and Pakistani roots to impress the gravity of the issue upon the Pakistani leadership.

He said that Pakistan is a democratic country and it would be in the country’s interest if the issue is resolved without any undue incrimination.

Raza Anjum was elected a councilor in Essex in 2007 at the age of 22. He graduated in law from University College London. Both his parents belong to a Kahloon family of Toba Tek Singh.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 28^th, 2010.