‘Britain has been quick to aid those in need… but not a Christian mother’: UK is condemned for denying asylum to Pakistani over fears it could spark attack on embassy staff
- Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi, 53, had death sentence for blasphemy overturned
- Accused of insulting Prophet Mohammed during an argument over cup of water
- Hardline Islamists protested, demanding that she be executed for alleged crime
- Gone into hiding due to threats, as family pleaded for political asylum in the UK
- Reluctance to offer Ms Bibi asylum has been slammed by UK groups and MPs
The British government has been criticised for not offering asylum to a Christian Pakistani woman freed from death row after her blasphemy conviction was overturned.
Asia Bibi, 53, who was sentenced to death for allegedly insulting the Prophet Mohammed in 2010, has gone into hiding following her release, due to the threats against her and her family’s life.
Experts say Ms Bibi and her husband and children will need to leave Pakistan for their own safety, but so far no formal offers of asylum have been made – despite calls for the UK to step up to the plate.
Controversial: Asia Bibi, 53, was sentenced to death in 2010, after being accused of insulting Islam during an argument over a water bowl with a group of Muslim women in Punjab
The British Pakistani Christian Association (BCPA) called the refusal to offer her asylum – a decision allegedly taken out of fear for the safety of the staff at the UK consulate in Islamabad – ‘shocking’.
‘Britain has historically had a quick response to come to the aid of those suffering human rights abuses,’ Wilson Chowdhry, Chairman of (BPCA) told Fox News.
-
Tory vice-chairman QUITS over government’s failure to offer…
Theresa May says she’s concerned for safety of Pakistani… -
Church leaders urge Home Secretary to offer asylum to Asia…
Share this article
‘But a Christian mother of five who has been exonerated has not been offered asylum.’
A week after being freed from jail, Ms Bibi remains in limbo, with negotiations apparently under way to allow her to leave the country despite objections from Islamist hardliners demanding her execution.
Since the Supreme Court overturned Bibi’s conviction last month, Pakistan has been rattled by violent protests from Islamists calling for her beheading, for mutiny in the armed forces and for the murder of the country’s top judges.
During last week’s Prime Minister’s Questions, Theresa May pledged to protect Ms Bibi, but stopped short of offering her and her family asylum in the UK
United on Bibi: Labour’s Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry and former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson have both pushed for Ms Bibi to be granted asylum in the UK
Blasphemy is a massively inflammatory issue in Muslim-majority Pakistan, where even unproven allegations of insulting Islam and Prophet Mohammed can lead to lynchings and murders.
During last week’s Prime Minister’s Questions, Theresa May pledged to protect Ms Bibi, but stopped short of offering her and her family asylum in the UK.
The delay in offering asylum to Ms Bibi and her family was cited by Conservative Party vice-chairman Rehman Chisti as one of the two reasons for his resignation on Thursday.
Chishti, MP for Gillingham and Rainham in Kent, said he was ‘very disappointed by the lack of leadership shown by the Government’ to do the ‘morally right thing’.
Other senior UK politicians who have called for Ms Bibi to be offered asylum include former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, and Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry, who branded Britain’s reluctance to offer asylum to Mrs Bibi ‘an act of shameful cowardice’.
As the UK drags its heels, talks are under way with Canada to secure a safe future there for Mrs Bibi and her husband and their children. France and Italy are both believed to be on the brink of making an official offer too.
Rumours are rife in Pakistan that Ms Bibi has already left the country, with fake reports claiming she met with Pope Francis in the Vatican.
Islamist supporters of Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal protesting against Mrs Bibi’s release in Pakistan’s most populous city, Karachi on November 8
Ashiq Masih (left), Asia Bibi’s husband (left) with their daughters Esha (centre) and Esham (right) at their residence in Lahore on October 31, 2014
The Pakistani government has repeatedly stated that Bibi is being held in a secure location in Pakistan after being released from a prison in central Multan last week, though her exact whereabouts are unknown.
Last week, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi reiterated the government’s position, saying: ‘We have clarified earlier and we clarify it again. She has not gone abroad. She is here. There is no controversy.’
Ms Bibi, a mother-of-five, is not being allowed to leave the country as her case is subjected to a final review.
The review was prompted by a petition filed by the hardline Islamist Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) party – a petition allowed as part of an agreement between the TLP and the Pakistani government to halt days of violent protests which followed her successful appeal.
The petition essentially checks to see if any procedural or clerical errors were made by the court during its final ruling.
If there were not, then the decision will stand. The chances of the apex court’s acquittal being overturned are slim, according to Bibi’s lawyer.
The TLP has vowed to return to the streets if Ms Bibi leaves the country.
Ms Bibi’s case outraged Christians worldwide and has been a source of division within Pakistan, where two politicians who sought to help her were assassinated, including Punjab governor Salman Taseer, who was shot by his own bodyguard.
Happier times: Asia Bibi is seen with her two youngest children Eisham, left, and her sister Esha, right, who has learning difficulties – now aged 18 and 17
The allegations against Ms Bibi date back to 2009, when she was working in a field near her home village in Sheikhupura, Punjab and was asked to fetch water.
The Muslim women she was labouring with objected, saying that as a non-Muslim Ms Bibi was unfit to drink from the same water bowl as them.
Ms Bibi would later say that the women insulted her religion, to which she responded: ‘I believe in my religion and in Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for the sins of mankind. What did your Prophet Mohammed ever do to save mankind?’
This prompted the Muslim women to go to a local imam and accuse Ms Bibi of blasphemy against the Prophet Mohammed.
Before Ms Bibi could be arrested on any official charges, a violent mob descended on their family home, and beat Ms Bibi up in front of her children.
The abuse was so violent, police were called to the scene, but after rescuing the mother-of-five, they arrested her and threw her in jail – and a year later she was convicted of blasphemy.
Blasphemy is a charge so sensitive in Pakistan that anyone even accused of insulting Islam risks a violent and bloody death at the hands of vigilantes.
The charge is punishable by a maximum penalty of death under legislation that rights groups say is routinely abused by religious extremists as well as ordinary Pakistanis to settle personal scores.
The law does not define what blasphemy constitutes, and evidence is often not reproduced in court for fear of committing a fresh offence.
Despite this, calls for reform of the blasphemy law have regularly been met with violence and rejected.
Source: Read Full Article