Lahore HC stays Blasphemy Law amendment until judicial ruling on Aasia case

LAHORE - The Lahore High Court has ordered a stay against making any amendments in Pakistan’s Blasphemy Law until the judicial ruling on Aasia Bibi, the Christian woman sentenced to death on blasphemy charges, is finally out.

The court ruled on a petition filed by a citizen that no amendment be made in the Blasphemy Law until the court delivers its verdict on the case, Geo News reports.

The court said the law could not be presented in the National Assembly floor till the court decided a case on the topic.

On November 29, LHC Chief Justice Khwaja Mohammad Sharif had issued an interim order, restraining President Asif Ali Zardari and his functionaries from taking any action with regard to the death sentence awarded to Aasia under blasphemy laws.

Human Rights organisations and even Pakistan Supreme Court Bar Association President Asma Jahangir denounced the stay granted by the Lahore High Court against any action leading to a presidential pardon for Aasia.

The 45-year-old mother of five has already spent a year-and-a-half in jail on charges of insulting the prophet Muhammad and the Quran.

She was sentenced to death after a district judge found her guilty of having stated that insects had feasted upon the prophet Muhammad’s ear prior to his death and that he married his first wife for wealth, and that the Quran was written by man and not God. Aasia denied the accusations, claiming ignorance of Islamic knowledge. (ANI)