Islamabad: The Supreme Court of Pakistan has constituted a three-member special bench to hear the final appeal against the execution of Asia Bibi, a Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy.
The hearing which is slated to take place on Monday will decide the fate of Asia Bibi in the matter which raked up controversy all around the world. The Vatican and some international humanitarian organizations have earlier called for the immediate release of Asia Bibi.
The three-judge bench will be headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar while Justice Asif Saeed Khosa and Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel will be the other members of the bench.
In 2011, former Punjab governor Salman Taseer, who spoke out in support of Bibi, was gunned down in broad daylight in Islamabad. His assassin Mumtaz Qadri was executed in 2016 after the court found him guilty of murder.
Asia Bibi, accused of insulting the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) during an argument with a Muslim woman over a bowl of water, was convicted and sentenced to death in 2010.
Bibi's supporters maintain her innocence and insist it was a personal dispute, alleging that the blasphemy law was deliberately misused to settle grudges against Bibi.(UNI)