Islamabad, November 15: The Jinnah Institute expresses shock and dismay at the sentence of death for Aasia Bibi, a Christian woman and the mother of five, by a court in the Nankana sahib district of Punjab.
Aasia Bibi is a resident of Chak 3 of the Ittanwali district and was sentenced on blasphemy charges in the village of in June 2009 and has been in jail for over a year.
Aasia Bibi was sentenced under Section 295B and C of the Pakistan Penal Code, commonly referred to as the Blasphemy Laws, which were amended during military dictator Zia-ul-Haq's rule. The Jinnah Institute and its Board of Advisors joins human rights organizations and civil society in a call for the repeal of the Blasphemy Laws, which has been used as a method of persecution of religious minorities and to settle personal vendettas.
According to reports, and an investigation by the National Commission on the Status of Women, Aasia Bibi's case is rooted in a personal vendetta by a landlord who is using the issue to settle a score with the victim, and has been accused of committing blasphemy and citing examples from Islamic texts, despite being an illiterate woman.
Sherry Rehman, President of the Jinnah Institute, said, "It is clear that Aasia Bibi is yet another victim of the shocking prejudice that pervades our institutions. If all institutions of the state, including the judiciary, cannot protect its minorities from abuse, they must no longer be complicit in their victimization. The Blasphemy Law has been abused for over twenty years as an instrument of communal supremacism, and must be removed now."
Ali Dayan Hasan, Senior South Asia Analyst at Human Rights Watch and Jinnah Institute Advisory Board member said "Aasia Bibi's case should serve as a wake-up call to Pakistan's independent judiciary which urgently needs to address bigotry and incompetence in its ranks and to the government that needs to find the political will to repeal the blasphemy laws."
The Jinnah Institute condemns the use of legal institutions for political ends. The JI calls for the repeal and urgent review of the Blasphemy Laws by act of Parliament. Finally, it calls for the Lahore High Court to take up the appeal under due process in order to give Aasia Bibi a fair trial.