Seems the NZ media (and successive governments) are staying clear of raising the issue of Asia Bibi (aka Aasiya Noreen), a Pakistani Christian, sentenced to death a decade ago for insulting the Prophet Muhammad.    Her final appeal against the sentence is currently being heard by the Pakistan Supreme Court.

It all stems from her drinking water from a village well  and, by doing so, was deemed to have made the well unfit to be used by the Muslim majority in the village.    In the argument that followed she was called on the ‘convert’ and redeem herself.     Her response (which sealed her fate) was to say “What did your prophet Muhammad  ever do to save mankind”.

During the same period the Asia Bibi has been on death row the NZ Government has provided direct aid to Pakistan in excess of $7.5m plus an unknown amount through the Head of Mission Fund administered by MFAT (on small projects like the provision of water pumps and micro-credit funding).    One can fairly ask why we’re giving aid to a country where religious freedom exists in name only and where people can be put to death for questioning another faith.  

And why too from Labour and the Greens, who have elevated their condemnation of Australia over their treatment of illegal immigrants to an art form, such a deafening silence on what goes for ‘justice’ in Pakistan.