LAHORE: A Pakistani cabinet minister on Monday ratched up the pressure on President Asif Ali Zardari to pardon a Christian mother of five sentenced to death for blasphemy.
Aasia Bibi was sentenced to hang in Pakistan’s central province of Punjab this month after being found guilty of insulting the Prophet Mohammed.
Pope Benedict XVI last week called for Bibi’s release and said Christians in Pakistan were “often victims of violence and discrimination.”
“According to my own investigation, it was a personal dispute and she did not commit blasphemy,” said Pakistan’s minister for minority affairs, Shahbaz Bhatti, who is himself a Christian.
He said Zardari had commissioned him to investigate the case. “I will hopefully submit my report to the president on Wednesday and recommend to him to grant pardon to Aasia Bibi”.
“Bibi is innocent and the case against her is baseless.”
Punjab governor Salman Taseer on Sunday became the first senior government official to appeal to Zardari for clemency after visiting Bibi in prison.
“We have forwarded her petition to President Asif Ali Zardari and it is with him,” Taseer told AFP. “She is poor and belongs to a minority community and should be pardoned.”
But the presidency told AFP on Monday it had received no petition.
Rights activists say Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy law, which is punishable by death, encourages extremism in the Muslim country.
The case began in June 2009 when Bibi was asked to fetch water while out working in the fields. Muslim women labourers objected, saying that as a non-Muslim, she should not touch the water bowl.
Bibi was later arrested by police and prosecuted after Muslim women complained that she made derogatory remarks about the Prophet Mohammed.
Rights activists and pressure groups say it is the first time that a woman had been sentenced to hang in Pakistan for blasphemy.
Only around three per cent of Pakistan’s population of 167 million are estimated to be non-Muslim. – AFP
(This AFP news on the 22nd of November 2010 was reported in Malaysia’s The Star the next day)
As we pray for the accusers, and ask for both the release of Asia Bibi and also the repeal of the blasphemy law, we can remember the promise of Jesus Christ given to us in John 14:13 (NIV)
13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.
When we make this prayer, we know that we are asking in the name of Jesus Christ because neither this death sentence nor the blasphemy law bring glory to the Father of Jesus Christ.
On 26th November 2010, (two days after I wrote the above PPP) Pakistan’s most influential Sunni Muslim alliance urged the government not to pardon Asia Bibi, warning that it would lead to nationwide anarchy. The stand of this alliance is very clear and it was stressed that the punishment cannot be waived.
God is Sovereign and we know that the Son will bring glory to the Father through this delicate and tragic situation.
The Micah Mandate is a Christian-based public interest advocacy ministry that seeks a transformation of our nation through justice, mercy and humility.
