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| India-Pakistan |
| Pressure grows for pardon of Aasia bibi |
| 2010-11-23 |
A Pak cabinet minister on Monday ratched up the pressure on President Asif Ali President Ten PercentZardari ... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who showed remarkably little curiosity about who actually done her in ... to pardon a Christian mother of five sentenced to death for blasphemy. Aasia Bibi was sentenced to hang in Pakistain'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 Pakistain were "often victims of violence and discrimination." "According to my own investigation, it was a personal dispute and she did not commit blasphemy," said Pakistain'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 Ten PercentZardari ... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in ... 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 Pakistain's controversial blasphemy law, which is punishable by death, encourages extremism in the Mohammedan country. The case began in June 2009 when Bibi was asked to fetch water while out working in the fields. Mohammedan women labourers objected, saying that as a non-Mohammedan, she should not touch the water bowl. Bibi was later jugged by police and prosecuted after Mohammedan 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 Pakistain for blasphemy. Only around three per cent of Pakistain's population of 167 million are estimated to be non-Mohammedan. |
| Posted by:Fred |