The end of the beginning?

Aasia Bibi has finally been declared unreservedly innocent by the Supreme Court (SC) in dismissing the review petition against her acquittal by the apex court on October 31, 2018. The SC bench headed by newly-appointed Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Asif Saeed Khosa summarily dismissed the review petition on the grounds that the counsel for the petitioner had signally failed to point out any flaw in the acquittal judgement. The SC bench pointed out the stark discrepancies and contradictions in the witness testimonies that failed to corroborate each other. The CJP deplored that while the case was decided on merit, threats were hurled at the judges that they should be killed. He also reminded the petitioner's counsel how all of Pakistan had been disrupted and everything in their way torched by the protestors of the Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP). Having finally cleared the last hurdle in the way of her freedom, the Foreign Office and Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry chimed in with the tidings that Aasia Bibi was now free to go wherever she wants. It may be recalled that after the October 31, 2018 acquittal by the SC, Aasia Bibi had been released from jail but kept in preventive custody at a secret location to avoid any attempt to harm her by the fanatics of the TLP. Some western countries, chief among them Canada, have offered her and her family asylum since it is widely perceived that the danger to their lives from TLP is not yet over. One more turn for the better is the inability of the TLP this time round to mount more than small, sporadic protests against the dismissal of the review petition, owed in considerable measure to the fact that the TLP leadership and active cadre languish behind bars. These protests were easily dispersed by the police through arrests and some preventive detentions.
Now that Aasia Bibi's and her family's ordeal appears to be over, troubling questions and considerations linger. First and foremost, as referred to by the CJP, what if any action has been taken or is likely against those who bore false witness in the case? Such perjury, the CJP pointed out, attracted action under Section 194 of the Code of Criminal Procedure extending to life imprisonment. Second, did the trial and Lahore High Court (LHC) that condemned her to death and upheld her conviction and death sentence respectively exercise their judicial minds objectively and fairly when confronted with the glaring inconsistencies and outright lies strewn across the face of the witnesses' testimonies? Did they critically examine the locus standi of the original complainant (and review petitioner before the SC), Qari Mohammad Salam, and the fact that he managed to get the FIR against Aasia Bibi registered almost a week after the alleged blasphemous incident? Was there any attempt at a proper investigation by the police before the FIR was registered (this has seldom if ever happened in blasphemy accusation cases)? The answers to these questions indubitably point towards the tragic consequences following such blasphemy accusations, often false or motivated by mundane earthly rather than religious motives. Blasphemy accused have been lynched by fanatical mobs. If they escape such a fate, the climate of fear generated by hate-mongering vigilantes places a dark cloud of threat to life and limb over their heads even if the courts find them innocent. The latter is an all too infrequent occurrence, and it has been argued that the killing of Justice Arif Bhatti of the LHC for acquitting a blasphemy accused three years after he retired has instilled fear of the consequences amongst our honourable members of the bench, not to mention unprotected prosecutors and witnesses. Court proceedings in blasphemy cases make a mockery of due process since the original charge cannot even be quoted or repeated since that would be considered blasphemy too. No religion, let alone Islam, advocates such irrationality from which tragic consequences more often than not flow. For too long, religious fanatics have been able to browbeat and frighten citizens and the state by a blanket monopoly on religious edicts that may or may not conform to the just principles of Islam but certainly wreak havoc in their wake.
Aasia Bibi's ordeal speaks to similar ordeals undergone by all blasphemy accused. So far there is no legal or moral sanction imposed on false and frivolous accusers. We hope Aasia Bibi and her family can put their nightmare behind them and be able to knit their destroyed lives together again. Of course nothing can compensate her or them for the pain, fear and persecution, real and threatened, they have undergone. At this point, spare a thought for all others subjected to this dark practice. The late Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer and Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti fell to fanatical assassins for the 'sin' of standing up for the rights of Aasia Bibi. How many more Aasia Bibis, Salmaan Taseers and Shahbaz Bhattis need to be sacrificed before Pakistan turns its back on the benighted fallout of the blasphemy laws and re-emerges into the light of a modern, civilised, law-ruled and -abiding society?