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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—A Pakistani woman whose blasphemy conviction was overturned last month remains caught in a legal limbo, fearful of staying in Pakistan but so far unable to leave amid government concerns that her departure would set off new protests by religious hardliners.
Asia Bibi, a Christian who was accused of blasphemy after an argument with Muslim co-workers, was technically freed from jail last month. She was sentenced to death for blasphemy in 2010.
Blasphemy is an incendiary issue in Pakistan, and a movement has organized around preventing what its followers see as insults to Islam. In the past, two politicians who defended Ms. Bibi and called for reform of the country’s harsh blasphemy laws were assassinated.
Hundreds, including many Muslims, languish in Pakistani jails under the blasphemy laws, which include a mandatory death sentence for insults to the prophet Muhammad. Human-rights groups say people are often charged on flimsy or concocted evidence, with non-Muslims disproportionately targeted, though Muslims too are prosecuted under the laws.
Three days of intense protests by extremists over the acquittal of Ms. Bibi ended earlier this month only after the government said it wouldn’t interfere with a legal challenge to the court decision. The government also promised that legal efforts would be made to stop her leaving the country while the court considers the challenge. However, lower-level protests continue.
Ms. Bibi, a farm laborer, had been sentenced to death in 2010 after a row with Muslim fellow workers out in a field over a drink of water led to blasphemy charges.
Asia Bibi in an undated file photo
Photo:
handout/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Ms. Bibi was released from jail last week, and diplomats believe she is now being kept under guard by the authorities in Islamabad. Officially and legally she is free, say Pakistani officials. But she is under severe threat from extremists. The government has said only that she is in Pakistan. Her family say they want to flee the country.
“It is egregious and completely unacceptable that Asia’s ordeal has not come to end yet,” said Saroop Ijaz, the legal adviser in Pakistan to Human Rights Watch. “The government has a responsibility to protect her. However, that does not mean a continued detention,” he said.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday that “we are in discussions with the Pakistani government” about taking in Ms. Bibi, according to Agence France Presse, which interviewed him.
Diplomats from European Union countries say privately they are confident that she and her family will find refuge in one of their countries and are working behind the scenes to make arrangements, though no definite destination has been announced. Even abroad, Ms. Bibi would likely remain in danger of attack by extremists, diplomats, officials and human-rights groups say. Diplomats says Pakistani authorities would first need to decide to allow her to travel abroad.
Association with the case risks retribution by extremists against any country that takes her, including against its diplomatic staff in Pakistan. At least one European country has reduced its number of diplomats in Islamabad recently because of the blasphemy issue.
Italy and France are among the nations that have said they would like to help Ms. Bibi. But there have been no public offers of asylum.
Antiblasphemy campaigners have filed a legal challenge to the decision of the Supreme Court that found her innocent. While legally she isn’t required to be in the country for the hearing of the challenge, a Pakistani official said it would be “safer both for her and for Pakistan” if she leaves only after the petition is heard.
So far the court hasn’t given a date to hear the petition. Lawyers say they expect it to be heard before the current chief justice, who headed the bench that found her innocent, retires in mid-January. They say they expect the court to stand by its decision. The petition is the last possible legal recourse for the protesters, who called for the judges to be killed after last month’s verdict.
Authorities are also concerned about a coming religious holiday this month that marks the birthday of the prophet Muhammad, when passions run high. A senior Pakistani official said now was “too sensitive” a time to let her leave the country.
While some clerics here have said they will accept the verdict of the Supreme Court, the main antiblasphemy group, Tehreek-e-Laibbak Pakistan, or Movement of Devotion to the Prophet, said it won’t. Laibbak has also threatened further demonstrations if it can’t overturn the acquittal in court.
“We didn’t accept the last Supreme Court verdict, so why would we accept a new ruling that finds her innocent?” said Ijaz Ashrafi, a spokesman for Laibbak. “You’ve seen the protests we put on before.”
At the July election, Laibbak’s newly formed political party won more than 2 million votes.
Last year, the group held a three-week protest in Islamabad that forced a government minister to resign and ended in violent clashes with police.
—Waqar Gilani in Islamabad contributed to this article.
Write to Saeed Shah at [email protected]
