This article was last updated on April 16, 2022
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The Supreme Court of Pakistan announced today to delay its judgment on an appeal against a Christian mother on death row convicted in a blasphemy case. One of the judges on the bench stepped down on Thursday as security was heighted in Islamabad due to the top court’s expected verdict on the final appeal in the case of Asia Bibi, who has been on death row since 2010.
One member of the three-judge bench, Justice Iqbal Hameed ur Rehman, told the court he had to recuse himself, claiming a conflict of interest. In his remarks, Justice Iqbal Hameed wrote that “I was a part of the bench that was hearing the case of Salmaan Taseer, and this case is related to that.” The provincial governor gunned down in Islamabad in 2011, Taseer, was shot due to his public support for Bibi. Whereas his assassin, Mumtaz Qadri, was hanged earlier in 2016. Local media reports that Justice Rehman was chief justice on the Islamabad High Court which heard Qadri’s appeal in 2011. The Supreme Court did not immediately set a new date for Bibi’s appeal.
Convicted and sentenced to hang in 2010, Bibi was booked due to an argument with a Muslim woman over a bowl of water. According to Bibi’s supporters and her defense lawyers, she is completely innocent because it was a personal dispute rather than a blasphemy case. However, successive appeals have been rejected, and if the Supreme Court bench eventually upholds Bibi’s conviction, her only recourse will be a direct appeal to the president for clemency.
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