Pakistan PM Khan calls for calm as protests erupt after blasphemy verdict

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan hit out at religious hardliners and appealed for calm on Wednesday after extremists called for the country’s Supreme Court justices to be murdered for overturning the conviction of a Christian woman facing execution for blasphemy. 

Khan, who took to the nation’s airwaves several hours after the court ordered the acquittal of Asia Bibi, delivered a forceful call for Pakistanis to respect the verdict which sparked protests across the country. 

“They are inciting you for their own political gain, you should not get trapped by them for the sake of the country, they are doing no service to Islam,” Khan said in a televised broadcast.

Earlier, a hardline party in Pakistan called for the death of the chief justice of the Supreme Court and two other judges after announcement of the verdict.

The leader of the Tehreek-e-Labaik (TLP) party also called for the ouster of Prime Minister Imran Khan's government over the case of Asia Bibi, who was acquitted by a Supreme Court panel earlier in the day.

"The patron in chief of TLP, Muhammad Afzal Qadri, has issued the edict that says the chief justice and all those who ordered the release of Asia deserve death," said party spokesman Ejaz Ashrafi.

TLP members launched street protests blocking roads in major cities to condemn the ruling, which was welcomed by human rights advocates. 

TRT World's Reagan Des Vignes has more.

The ruling

Bibi, 54, has been on death row since 2010 after being accused of insulting Islam's Prophet Muhammed.

Bibi was being held at an undisclosed jail for security reasons.

The landmark ruling angered hardline Muslims who demanded her execution. 

Bibi was arrested in 2009 after a quarrel with Muslim women.

A governor and a minister of minorities were assassinated in 2011 for supporting her.

Insulting Islam is punishable by death in Pakistan, and the mere rumor of blasphemy can ignite lynchings.

"The appeal is allowed. She has been acquitted. The judgement of high court as well as trial court is reversed. Her conviction is set aside," said Pakistan's Chief Justice Saqib Nisar in the ruling.

Protests erupt

Demonstrations broke out in major cities across Pakistan in the ruling’s wake, with club-wielding protesters blocking Islamabad’s main highway and barricading roads in Karachi and Lahore.

No one has ever been executed in Pakistan on blasphemy charges even though dozens have been jailed or extrajudicially killed, at times, in mob lynchings. 

TRT World spoke to Kamran Yusuf for more details on the verdict.

Some hardline clerics had asked followers to be ready for street agitation early in the morning if the Supreme Court releases the accused woman. 

One firebrand radical, Khadim Hussain Rizvi, the leader of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik movement, has asked people in video messages to be prepared to make "any sacrifice".

Background

The trial of Bibi, who is an illiterate mother of five, has become a test case for Pakistan's commitment to protect its minorities, which have born the brunt of blasphemy accusations.  

Even criticising the law or defending the blasphemy accused can lead to death.

Salman Taseer, a prominent businessman and governor of the Punjab province, who had supported Bibi and called for blasphemy law reforms, was shot dead by his own guard in 2011. 

That same year, Shahbaz Bhatti, a Christian politician, was killed for being a vocal critic of the law. 

"It's gonna be really tense in the morning. Authorities will probably shut down mobile phone service," a Karachi-based journalist told TRT World. 

The Supreme Court has banned local media from reporting on the case until the judgement is announced. 

On Twitter, a video circulated that showed young men on bikes riding through a dark road and shouting slogans, calling for the death of Asia Bibi.