ASIA/PAKISTAN - The government "cannot ignore Asia Bibi’s case"

Lahore (Agenzia Fides) - "The federal and provincial ministries should take the responsibility to monitor, protect and defend cases against people accused of blasphemy, including that of Asia Bibi": is what is said in a statement sent to Fides by Peter Jacob, a Catholic activist, formerly secretary of the Justice and Peace Commission of the Pakistani bishops.
"The governments of the country - he explains - are responsible for allowing the abuse of the blasphemy law, giving rise to a climate of widespread insecurity, ignoring possible solutions or remedial actions to the problem". Today, therefore, "they cannot ignore the problem": "The state - notes Jacob - has a responsibility to protect the accused, who are too often victims of extrajudicial killings" but also lawyers and judges: they, many times, have paid with life-long commitment to defend or absolve the accused of blasphemy.
Jacob recalls some cases, like that of Salamat Masih and Rimsha Masih in which the government shared "a part of responsibility" and "were handled well": cases in which, in the end, the truth came to light. Rimsha Masih, for example, was acquitted in 2013 after a conspiracy against him was unmasked. Therefore, according to Jacob, civil society should ask "greater involvement of the government in defense of blasphemy cases" and this must also happen in the case of Asia Bibi, in which the Lahore High Court upheld in appeal the death sentence for blasphemy (PA) (Agenzia Fides 28/10/2014)