The end of the
beginning?
Aasia Bibi has
finally been declared unreservedly innocent by the Supreme Court (SC) in
dismissing the review petition against her acquittal by the apex court on
October 31, 2018. The SC bench headed by newly appointed Chief Justice of
Pakistan (CJP) Asif Saeed Khosa summarily dismissed the review petition on the
grounds that counsel for the petitioner had signally failed to point out any
flaw in the acquittal judgement. The SC bench pointed out the stark
discrepancies and contradictions in the witness testimonies that failed to
corroborate each other. The CJP deplored that while the case was decided on
merit, threats were hurled at the judges that they should be killed. He also
reminded the petitioner’s counsel how all of Pakistan had been disrupted and
everything in their way torched by the protestors of the Tehreek-e-Labaik
Pakistan (TLP). Having finally cleared the last hurdle in the way of her
freedom, the Foreign Office and Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry chimed in
with the tidings that Aasia Bibi was now free to go wherever she wants. It may
be recalled that after the October 31, 2018 acquittal by the SC, Aasia Bibi had
been released from jail but kept in preventive custody at a secret location to
avoid any attempt to harm her by the fanatics of the TLP. Some western
countries, chief among them Canada, have offered her and her family asylum
since it is widely perceived that the danger to their lives from TLP fanatics
is not yet over. One more turn for the better is the inability of the TLP this
time round to mount more than small, sporadic protests against the dismissal of
the review petition, owed in considerable measure to the fact that the TLP
leadership and active cadre languish behind bars. These protests were easily
dispersed by the police through arrests and some preventive detentions.
Now that Aasia
Bibi and her family’s ordeal appears to be over, troubling questions and
considerations linger. First and foremost, as referred to by the CJP, what if
any action has been taken or is likely against those who bore false witness in
the case? Such perjury, the CJP pointed out, attracted action under Section 194
of the Code of Criminal Procedure extending to life imprisonment. Second, did the
trial and Lahore High Court (LHC) that condemned her to death and upheld her
conviction and death sentence respectively exercise their judicial minds
objectively and fairly when confronted with the glaring inconsistencies and
outright lies strewn across the face of the witnesses’ testimonies? Did they
critically examine the locus standi of the original complainant (and review
petitioner before the SC), Qari Mohammad Salam, and the fact that he managed to
get the FIR against Aasia Bibi registered almost a week after the alleged
blasphemous incident? Was there any attempt at a proper investigation by the
police before the FIR was registered (this has seldom if ever happened in
blasphemy accusation cases)? The answers to these questions indubitably point
towards the tragic consequences following such blasphemy accusations, often
false or motivated by mundane earthly rather than religious motives. Blasphemy
accused have been lynched by fanatical mobs. If they escape such a fate, the
climate of fear generated by hate-mongering vigilantes places a dark cloud of
threat to life and limb over their heads even if the courts find them innocent.
The latter is an all too infrequent occurrence, and it has been argued that the
killing of Justice Arif Bhatti of the LHC for acquitting a blasphemy accused
three years after he retired has instilled fear of the consequences amongst our
honourable members of the bench, not to mention unprotected prosecutors and
witnesses. Court proceedings in blasphemy cases make a mockery of due process
since the original charge cannot even be quoted or repeated since that would be
considered blasphemy too. No religion, let alone Islam, advocates such
irrationality from which tragic consequences more often than not flow. For too
long, religious fanatics have been able to browbeat and frighten citizens and the
state by a blanket monopoly on religious edicts that may or may not conform to
the just principles of Islam but certainly wreak havoc in their wake.
Aasia Bibi’s
ordeal speaks to similar ordeals undergone by all blasphemy accused. So far
there is no legal or moral sanction imposed on false and frivolous accusers. We
hope Aasia Bibi and her family can put their nightmare behind them and be able
to knit their destroyed lives together again. Of course nothing can compensate
her or them for the pain, fear and persecution, real and threatened, they have
undergone. At this point, spare a thought for all others subjected to this dark
practice. The late Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer and Minorities Minister
Shahbaz Bhatti fell to fanatical assassins for the ‘sin’ of standing up for the
rights of Aasia Bibi. How many more Aasia Bibis, Salmaan Taseers and Shahbaz
Bhattis need to be sacrificed before Pakistan turns its back on the benighted
fallout of the blasphemy laws and re-emerges into the light of a modern, civilised,
law-ruled and -abiding society?
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