Supreme Court to hear Asiya Bibi's final appeal

LAHORE: A life and death countdown has begun in Pakistan, where the Supreme Court is due to hear a final appeal against the execution of a Christian woman for blasphemy on Thursday.

This will be the final appeal for mother-of-five Asia Bibi, some six years after she was sentenced to death -- accused of insulting the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) during an argument with a Muslim woman over a bowl of water.

The allegations against Bibi date back to June 2009, when she was labouring in a field and a row broke out with some Muslim women she was working with.

She was asked to fetch water, but the Muslim women objected, saying that as a non-Muslim she was unfit to touch the water bowl.

The women went to a local cleric and accused Bibi of blasphemy against the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), a charge punishable by death under legislation that rights groups say is routinely abused to settle personal vendettas.

Bibi was convicted and sentenced to death in 2010, despite her advocates maintaining her innocence and insisting the accusers held grudges against her.

But successive appeals have been rejected, and if on Thursday the three-judge Supreme Court bench upholds Bibi´s conviction, her only recourse will be a direct appeal to the president for clemency.

She would become the first person in Pakistan to be executed for blasphemy. The repercussions for minorities, human rights and the blasphemy laws will be "tremendous" if that happens, says Shahzad Akbar, a human rights lawyer.

"In Pakistan blasphemy cases are mostly misused... it would be a huge blow for minorities in Pakistan who already live in fear," Akbar explained.

A decision in Bibi´s favour, Qadri says, "would send a powerful message to the world that Pakistan respects the rule of law and not the mob."

But he also warned that hardliners "would without question react angrily and likely violently" if Bibi is acquitted.

In 2011, liberal provincial governor Salmaan Taseer, who spoke out in support of Bibi, was gunned down in broad daylight in Islamabad.

The state hanged his assassin Mumtaz Qadri earlier in 2016 in a Supreme Court decision that was hailed by progressives, but brought hardliners into the streets supporting Qadri and demanding Bibi be killed.

Her husband has already written to Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain to seek permission to move her to France.