Aasia Bibi to join her daughters in Canada “very soon” – lawyer

Pakistani Christian woman Aasia Bibi who was exonerated of blasphemy charges after spending eight years on death row is expected to join her daughters in Canada very soon. (Photo courtesy: social media)

Saif-ul-Mulook, right, the lawyer of Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi, leaves the Supreme Court building after the court rejected the review appeal against Asia Bibi, in Islamabad on Jan. 29, 2019. (AFP)

• Duo had flown to Ottawa earlier this month
• Country has offered asylum to Pakistani Christian woman and her family

ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani Christian woman who was exonerated in a blasphemy case after spending eight years on death row and set free by the Supreme Court on Tuesday is all set to fly to Canada to join her two daughters there, her lawyer said on Wednesday.
The apex court upheld the October acquittal of Aasia Bibi, 54, in a landmark blasphemy case, clearing the final legal obstacle in her path to freedom and allowing her to seek asylum in a country of her choice.
“She will fly to Canada very soon to join her daughters who are already there. Yes, Canada has offered them the asylum,” Saiful Malook, who pleaded Bibi’s case in the court, told Arab News on Wednesday.
Bibi’s two daughters were secretly flown out to Canada earlier this month after accepting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's offer for asylum.
In November last year, Trudeau said that his government was engaging with Pakistani authorities over Bibi's case. “We are in discussions with the Pakistani government,” he said.
“There is a delicate domestic context that we respect which is why I don’t want to say any more about that, but I will remind people that Canada is a welcoming country,” Trudeau said.
Shortly after the dismissal of a review petition -- which had sought that a death sentence awarded by a lower court to Bibi be upheld -- dozens of activists of the ultra-Islamist Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) party held protests in different cities of the country, including Karachi, Hyderabad, and Lahore.
They demanded that the government must “hang Aasia Bibi for defaming Prophet Muhammad [PBUH].” The law enforcement agencies, however, moved quickly and arrested scores of protesters to restore law and order.