PAKISTAN: HUSBAND OF CHRISTIAN WOMAN PLEADS FOR BLASPHEMY PARDON

The husband of a Christian woman who was sentenced to death four years ago under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws has pleaded for the country’s president to free his wife and allow her to move to France.
Lahore’s high court recently upheld the conviction against Asia Bibi, who is among the best-known victim of laws that have been internationally condemned.
In a public letter Ashiq Masih said his wife’s only hope was for an official pardon from the president, Mamnoon Hussain.
“No one should be killed for drinking a glass of water,” the letter said, referring to the incident in June 2009 when Bibi was accused of insulting the prophet Muhammad after a group of Muslim women in her home village of Itanwali, Punjab province, refused to drink from a glass used by a Christian.
In his letter Masih recalled how he and his family always “lived in peace” alongside their Muslim neighbours.
“But for some years now the situation in Pakistan has changed because of just a few people, and we are afraid,” he said.