No mercy petition, no presidential pardon

Officials say that the president’s power to grant clemency only extends to tazir punishments

LAHORE:?The home department has not yet received a mercy petition from Aasia Bibi or her family, Dr Jamal Yousaf, the additional secretary home department, told The Express Tribune.

Aasia Bibi, a Christian, was awarded a death sentence after being convicted of blasphemy by a trial court in Sheikhupura last week. The trial lasted 14 months.

The absence of such a petition means that the president cannot pardon Aasia Bibi just yet. Government officials and lawyers that The Express Tribune talked to about the possible legal course of action that Aasia Bibi can take, agree that the president cannot pardon her.

An official of the home department, requesting anonymity, said that Aasia Bibi only has the right to appeal the Lahore High Court (LHC) against the decision of the trial court right now. “In case the LHC rejects her appeal, she can go to the Supreme Court. If the apex court also upholds her death sentence, the convict can then request the president for clemency,” he said.

The official added that according to the legal procedure, when the apex court rejects the appeal against a death sentence, the prisons department sends a request to the sessions judge for signing black warrants of the death row prisoner and fixing a date for execution. A copy of the document is also forwarded to the Presidency, interior ministry and the home department.

During this, the concerned superintendent of jail can forward a mercy petition, either on the request of the death row prisoner or her family, along with the relevant documents. These documents that are submitted to the home department include a copy of the FIR, a copy of the judgment of the trial court, copy of the orders of the concerned high court, Supreme Court and medical certificate of the inmate.

According to Article 45 of the Constitution of Pakistan, the president has the power to grant pardon, reprieve and respite, and to remit, suspend or commute any sentence passed by any court, tribunal or other authority.

The home department official also said that the Punjab government had observed – in its reply to the federal government’s proposal to abolish the death penalty – that the power of the president to grant pardon only extends to Tazir punishments.

A sentence under a Tazir is imposed on the state’s command and not as a right of the individual under Allah’s law, the Punjab government had held.

Muhammad Safdar Shaheen Pirzada, a lawyer, also said, “The president can grant pardon to a person who has committed any offence against the state. However, the president has no power to extend pardon if an offence is ?omitted against religion, the Holy Prophet (pbuh) or Allah.”

Asif Ali Zardari who was sworn in as president in September 2008 had suspended the execution of prisoners on death row in November, 2008 till December, 2010.

Published in The Express Tribune November 24^th, 2010.

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Asiya Bibi seeks presidential pardon

Aasya Bibi is seen in an undated photo handed out by family members. PHOTO: REUTERS

ISLAMABAD:?A Christian woman sentenced to death on charges of blasphemy said on Saturday she had been wrongfully accused by neighbours due to a personal dispute, and appealed to the president to pardon her.

Asiya Bibi, mother of four, is the first woman to be sentenced to death under Pakistan’s blasphemy law which rights groups say is often exploited by religious extremists as well as ordinary Pakistanis to settle personal scores.

“I told police that I have not committed any blasphemy and this is a wrong accusation, but they did not listen to me,” Bibi told reporters after meeting with Salman Taseer, governor of the central Punjab province where she is imprisoned.

“I have small kids. I have wrongly been implicated in this false case,” she said in the prison, covered in a cloak that only revealed her eyes.

Taseer said he would take up Bibi’s case with President Asif Ali Zardari, who has the constitutional power to pardon her.

“Inshallah her appeal will be accepted,” Taseer said, adding that he had studied Bibi’s case and found that she had not committed any blasphemy.

“She is a helpless Christian woman. She can’t legally defend herself because she does not have resources. Implicating such helpless minorities in such cases amounts to ridiculing the constitution of Pakistan,” Taseer added.

On Friday, Zardari asked the ministry for minorities affairs to compile a report on Bibi’s case within three days after media suggested the accusations stemmed from a village dispute.

Bibi confirmed she had been involved in a dispute over livestock with her neighbours, but would not give any more details.

The 36-year-old farm worker was taken into custody by police in June last year and was convicted by a lower court on Nov. 8. She has been in prison since then, with her case drawing international media attention as well as appeals by human rights groups.

Bibi said her opponents physically abused her before taking her to court. “They slapped me…They tried to strangle me. Their women also pulled my hair,” she said in a choked voice.

According to media reports, the quarrel began when some women working on the same farm refused to drink water from a bowl used by Bibi, saying they would not drink or eat anything a non-Muslim has touched.

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