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Religious leaders had also demanded the ouster of the head of Pakistan's military, Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa, accusing him of acquiescing to Ms. Bibi's release. Soon after the Supreme Court's ruling, Pir Muhammad Afzal Qadri, another prominent protest leader, urged army generals to revolt against their top commander.

The military said Friday that it had nothing to do with Ms. Bibi's release. "The armed forces hope that this matter is resolved without disruption of peace," Maj. Gen. Asif Ghafoor, the army's spokesman, was quoted by state-run media as saying.

Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan

The TLP, founded in 2015, is known for widespread (often countrywide) street power and massive protests in opposition to any change to Pakistan's blasphemy law.

The TLP party came into existence, and subsequently rose to fame, after the hanging of Mumtaz Qadri, the killer of Salmaan Taseer, an outspoken secular governor of Punjab Province who had campaigned for Asia Bibi's release and for changes in the blasphemy laws

In October 2017, the government of Pakistan controversially changed the language in its 2017 elections bill. The Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan and its leader Khadim Hussain Rizvi strongly opposed the new language, and demanded the resignation of Pakistan's Minister for Law and Justice Zahid Hamid, who had changed the law.

The TLP held a large protest against the controversial amendment, stopping traffic at the Faizabad Interchange at first, which then led to further protests across the country. The party led a three-week sit-in protest that paralyzed the entire country including Pakistan's capital, Islamabad. At least six protesters were killed and 200 were injured when police unsuccessfully tried to disperse the sit-in, the protest had already spread out nationwide.

That protest forced the resignation of the federal law minister Zahid Hamid and paved the way for the group to poll more than 2.23 million votes in the July 25, 2018 general election, in what analysts called a "surprisingly" rapid rise.

What did the Supreme Court say?

Asia Bibi, a Christian who spent eight years on death row under Pakistan's divisive blasphemy law, had her conviction overturned on October 31 by the Supreme Court . She was convicted in 2010 under the blasphemy law after she was accused of insulting the Prophet.

The Supreme Court judges in their verdict said the prosecution had "categorically failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt". The case was based on flimsy evidence, they said, and proper procedures had not been followed.

Blasphemy laws have often been used to get revenge after personal disputes, and that convictions are based on thin evidence.

The Supreme Court while acquitting Asia Bibi pointed out: "Sometimes, to fulfill nefarious designs the law is misused by individuals leveling false allegations of blasphemy. Stately, since 1990, 62 people have been murdered as a result of blasphemy allegations, even before their trial could be conducted in accordance with law. Even prominent figures, who stressed the fact that the blasphemy laws have been misused by some individuals, met with serious repercussions. A latest example of misuse of this law was the murder of Mashal Khan, a student of Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan, who in April 2017 was killed by a mob in the premises of the university merely due to an allegation that he posted blasphemous content online."

The Supreme Court also mentioned another instance of the misuse of the blasphemy law. The court said: "Reference may also be made to the case of one Ayub Masih, who was accused of blasphemy by his neighbor Muhammad Akram. The alleged occurrence took place on 14th October 1996, the accused was arrested, but despite the arrest, houses of Christians were set ablaze and the entire Christian population of the village (fourteen families) were forced to leave the village. Ayub was shot and injured in the Sessions Court and was also further attacked in jail. After the trial was concluded, Ayub was convicted and sentenced to death, which was upheld by the High Court. However, in an appeal before this Court, it was observed that the complainant wanted to grab the plot on which Ayub Masih and his father were residing and after implicating him in the said case, he managed to grab the seven-marla plot. The appeal was accepted by this Court and the conviction was set aside."

At least 1,472 people were charged under the law between 1987 and 2016, according to the Center for Social Justice, an advocacy group. Of those, 730 were Muslims, 501 were Ahmedis -- a sect that is declared as non-Muslim in Pakistan -- while 205 were Christians and 26 were Hindus.

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Author and journalist. Author of Islamic Pakistan: Illusions & Reality; Islam in the Post-Cold War Era; Islam & Modernism; Islam & Muslims in the Post-9/11 America. Currently working as free lance journalist. Executive Editor of American (more...)
 
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