The fate of a Pakistani Christian woman accused of blasphemy was in limbo Saturday after the government allowed Islamist hardliners to appeal against her acquittal and put her on a no fly list.<\/p>\n
Asia Bibi\u2019s lawyer who saved her from the gallows left the country early Saturday after threats to his life.<\/p>\n
Bibi, who had been on death row since 2010, was acquitted of all charges by Pakistan\u2019s Supreme Court on Wednesday, triggering protests by Islamist hardliners who paralysed the country for three days blocking roads and disrupting traffic in major cities.<\/p>\n
The protesters however ended their action Friday night after the government reached a controversial deal to put Bibi on the no fly list and saying it would not object to an appeal against the verdict, which was filed earlier in the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe fear that she would be flown out of the country so we have requested the court for a early hearing of the case,\u201d he said adding that he would \u201cexploit all legal remedies to make sure Asia Bibi is hanged according to the law\u201d.<\/p>\n
Bibi\u2019s lawyer Saif-ul-Mulook and Pakistani media criticised the government for caving in to the Islamist hardliners after Prime Minister Imran Khan had earlier appeared to stand up to them following the court verdict.<\/p>\n
Mulook said the Islmist outcry was \u201cunfortunate but not unexpected\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s painful is the response of the government. They cannot even implement an order of the country\u2019s highest court,\u201d he said, adding that \u201cthe struggle for justice must continue\u201d.<\/p>\n
Dawn, the country\u2019s oldest newspaper, blasted the deal as \u201canother surrender\u201d in an editorial on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cYet another government has capitulated to violent religious extremists who neither believe in democracy, nor the constitution,\u201d it read.<\/p>\n
According to the agreement, which came after a failed first round of talks, legal proceedings will follow to impose a travel ban on Bibi and stop her leaving the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cHer life would be more or less the same, either inside a prison or in solitary confinement for security fears\u201d until a decision on the appeal, said Mulook.<\/p>\n
Blasphemy is a massively inflammatory charge in Muslim-majority Pakistan, where even unproven allegations of insulting Islam and its Prophet Mohammed can provoke death at the hands of vigilantes.<\/p>\n
Mulook himself left Pakistan early Saturday, citing threats to his life from Islamist hardliners and other lawyers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the current scenario, it\u2019s not possible for me to live in Pakistan,\u201d the 62-year-old lawyer told AFP before boarding a plane to Europe. \u201cI need to stay alive as I still have to fight the legal battle for Asia Bibi,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The fate of a Pakistani Christian woman accused of blasphemy was in limbo Saturday after the government allowed Islamist hardliners to appeal against her acquittal and put her on a no fly list. Asia Bibi\u2019s lawyer who saved her from the gallows left the country early Saturday after threats to his life. Bibi, who had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46298,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46297"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46299,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46297\/revisions\/46299"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}