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A week after the country's highest court ordered his release, a Pakistani Christian convicted of blasphemy for eight years on death row was still in jail on Wednesday, with no prospect of immediate release.
Thousands of Islamists protested in the streets in protest after Supreme Court justices overturned the conviction of Asia Bibi, revealing the division that separated traditionalists and modernizers from the nation's pious Muslim.
The ultra-conservative Islamists blocked the big cities to demand its immediate execution, in a three-day clash that ended when Prime Minister Imran Khan's administration agreed to allow a reconsideration of the ruling's decision. the Supreme Court.
Critics criticized the rise – which took place just days after Khan swore to confront the protesters – as a new capitulation to religious conservatives.
The agreement left Bibi in legal limbo – and languished in jail for a crime of which she was acquitted.
"Asia Bibi is in Multan prison and has not yet been released.We still have not received the order to release her", told AFP Zawar Hussain Warraich , Minister of Prisons in Punjab Province.
"Normally, we receive orders within two days of the court judgment, and if the relatives and the lawyers of a prisoner are very active, they can transmit it even during the day. Bibi, it has not happened yet, "added Warraich. .
"The Supreme Court should issue a directive to send us its release orders and we will release it as soon as we receive it."
He denied reports that additional security measures had been put in place for Bibi, saying that "she is already well protected by the prison staff".
An appeal was lodged in the court against the liberation of Bibi and the person in charge of the demonstrations demanding its execution, Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan, warned that his extremists were ready to go back down the street.
Blasphemy is an inflammatory charge in Pakistan's Muslim majority, where even unfounded accusations of insulting Islam can result in death at the hands of crowds.
The case stems from an incident that occurred in 2009 when Bibi was asked to fetch water while he was working in the fields. Muslim women workers objected, saying that as non-Muslims, she should not touch the bowl of water and that a fight would have broken out.
A local imam then claimed that Bibi had insulted the Prophet Muhammad – an accusation that she has always denied.
Bibi's husband, Ashiq Masih, called for Britain or the United States to grant asylum to the family, while his lawyer fled to the Netherlands.
Masih said the delay in the release of his wife, mother of five children, aggravated the family's agony.
"The girls are crying, they still have not seen their mother, the family is totally broken," he said.
Thousands of Islamists have invaded the streets in protest after the cancellation of the conviction of Asia Bibi by Supreme Court justices
