LAHORE: A three-member bench of Supreme Court Lahore registry on Wednesday halted a blasphemy convict Asia Bibi’s execution.
The bench headed by Justice Mian Saqib Nisar was hearing the case during which, the counsel Saif-ul-Malook told the court that his client was accused of committing blasphemy and was sentenced to death penalty by trial court in 2009. He said all the allegations against Asia Bibi are baseless as she is innocent.
Staying the execution of a Christian woman, Asia Bibi, the Supreme Court of Pakistan has admitted for hearing a petition filed by the death-row prisoner who was convicted on blasphemy charges.
The Supreme Court’s Lahore registry admitted the petition for full hearing and also ordered for all records pertaining to the case to be presented before it.
In her petition, the 50-year-old woman has claimed that she had not made any blasphemous remarks, and rather residents of her neighbourhood had leveled the blasphemy allegations against her based on a personal feud. She asked the court to strike down her death sentence.
Mother of five children, Asia Bibi has been on death row since November 2010 after being convicted of committing blasphemy during an argument with a Muslim woman over a bowl of water in 2009.
She had filed an appeal in the Supreme Court in November 2014 as her final legal recourse, one month after the Lahore High Court upheld the death sentence of Asia Bibi, dashing hopes the conviction might be overturned or commuted to a jail term.
INP