[Reader-list] LHC frees blasphemy accused after 14 years

[Pawan Durani]

"had this happened in India ......"

http://tribune.com.pk/story/29528/lhc-frees-blasphemy-accused-after-14-years/

LAHORE: Lahore  High Court on Thursday released a mentally ill woman
held without trial for 14 years on allegations of desecrating the
Quran, her lawyer and court officials said.

Despite “no evidence” being found against 60-year-old Zaibul Nisa, she
had been left to languish in the prison section of a mental asylum
since 1996, the court said. Nisa’s family did not challenge her
detention, according to her lawyer.

Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court, Khawaja Mohammad Sharif, “has
ordered the release of Zaibul Nisa after no evidence was found against
her,” a court official told AFP. “The chief justice expressed his
dismay over keeping the woman confined so long without any trial,” the
official said.

Nisa was arrested in the town of Rawat, near the capital Islamabad,
after a local resident filed a complaint at a police station that
someone had desecrated the Quran, defence lawyer Aftab Ahmad Bajwa
said. Bajwa said that Nisa’s name was not even mentioned in the police
complaint. “Nobody, not even her relatives, pursued the case. She was
sent to jail and then forgotten by everyone,” Bajwa told AFP, who took
up her case last year for humanitarian reasons.

Complainant Qari Mohammad Hafeez told reporters at the hearing that he
had not specified anyone by name in his submission and that police had
arrested Nisa of their own accord.

Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy law carries the death penalty —
although no one has ever been sent to the gallows for the crime. Two
Christian brothers accused of writing a blasphemous pamphlet critical
of the Prophet Mohammed (pbuh) were shot dead on Monday outside a
court in the eastern Pakistani city of Faisalabad. Human rights
activists want the legislation repealed, saying it is exploited for
personal enmity and encourages religious extremism.