Pakistan’s Supreme Court delayed an appeal into a notorious blasphemy case against a Christian mother on death row on Thursday after one of the judges stepped down, with thousands of security forces deployed following threats from Muslim clerics.
Police and troops had been stationed across Islamabad as the court readied to hear a final appeal in the case of Asia Bibi, who has been on death row since 2010. Observers had warned of “tremendous” repercussions in the case. But one of the three-judge bench, Justice Iqbal Hameed ur Rehman, told the court he had to recuse himself, claiming a conflict of interest.
“I was a part of the bench that was hearing the case of Salmaan Taseer, and this case is related to that,” he told the court, which was overflowing with journalists, lawyers, activists and clerics.
Taseer, a liberal provincial governor, was gunned down in Islamabad in 2011 after speaking out for Bibi. His assassin, Mumtaz Qadri, was hanged earlier in 2016 in a step liberals hailed as progressive, but which brought hardliners into the streets calling for Bibi’s death.
Rehman was chief justice on the Islamabad High Court which heard Qadri’s appeal in 2011, according to local media.
Observers have called the case a battle for Pakistan’s soul as the state walks a line between upholding human rights and appeasing hardliners. Clerics at the influential Red Mosque in Islamabad warned they would launch a nationwide protest if Bibi is released.