Source: World Watch Monitor, April 26, 2018<\/p>\n
Pakistan\u2019s chief justice says he will decide, \u201csoon,\u201d the fate of Aasiya Noreen, a Christian woman whose 2009 conviction on blasphemy charges has fixated world attention on the country\u2019s treatment of religious minorities.<\/p>\n
Chief Justice Saqib Nisar told Noreen\u2019s lawyer, Saif-ul-Malook, on April 21 that he would hear the woman\u2019s appeal. Noreen, popularly known as Asia Bibi, has been imprisoned since 2009.<\/p>\n
\u201cBe ready, Saif-ul-Malook. I am going to fix your case soon and I myself will preside over the bench,\u201d the Catholic news service UCAN reported Nisar as saying.<\/p>\n
\u201cBibi\u2019s family and everyone else who understands her ordeal [is] ecstatic at the news that her appeal will be heard soon,\u201d Malook told UCAN. According to Pakistan Today, the Chief Justice also said that all criminal appeals before the Supreme Court will be decided by July. The report did not explicitly mention Noreen\u2019s case, but it is a criminal matter.<\/p>\n
Noreen, a Catholic mother of five children, was arrested for allegedly making derogatory comments about Islam\u2019s prophet, Muhammad, during an argument with a Muslim woman. She has been in prison ever since and was sentenced to death for blasphemy a year later.<\/p>\n
\u00bb See full story<\/a> with links and pictures.<\/p>\n \u00bb Grieved about levels of religious conflict in today\u2019s world? Read Four Simple Ways to Love your Muslim Friends this Ramadan<\/a> (Crescent Project).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Source: World Watch Monitor, April 26, 2018 Pakistan\u2019s chief justice says he will decide, \u201csoon,\u201d the fate of Aasiya Noreen, a Christian woman whose 2009 conviction on blasphemy charges has fixated world attention on the country\u2019s treatment of religious minorities. Chief Justice Saqib Nisar told Noreen\u2019s lawyer, Saif-ul-Malook, on April 21 that he would hear … Continue reading PAKISTAN: Top Judge to Hear Asia Bibi\u2019s Appeal<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-briefs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7891"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7892,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7891\/revisions\/7892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}