KARACHI: The Chief Justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar said Wednesday that Aasia Bibi should not be given asylum as sending her abroad would imply Pakistan had failed in its duty to protect the life and property of its citizens.
According to a report on news website Geo TV, Nisar advocated “maximum protection” for Bibi in Pakistan while he was interacting with a group of Pakistani parliamentarians in London. Nisar said the government must assert its sovereignty in such matters, warning there would otherwise be no end to such cases.
He said the justice system needed to be fixed so that ordinary citizens could get speedy and fair trials. He also added there was no evidence against Bibi, yet the judiciary took about eight years to exonerate her of blasphemy charges.
Prior to the chief justice’s remarks, the country’s foreign ministry spokesperson said Bibi was safe and secure in her homeland and Pakistan would continue to respect her legal rights.
Dr. Muhammad Faisal’s comments were a response to Missio, a church association which held a joint press conference with Bibi’s lawyer in Frankfurt and asked Germany to grant the 51-year-old woman asylum.
“Aasia Bibi is our citizen and Pakistan fully respects her legal rights,” Faisal said. Bibi, a Christian woman, was acquitted in a high-profile blasphemy case by Pakistan’s top court last month.
During the press conference Saiful Mulook, church officials and German MPs urged Germany to process the visas for Bibi and her family so that they could live in Europe.
“The MPs of the ruling party will meet the German foreign minister to request him to direct the ambassador in Islamabad to initiate the process to grant the visa to Aasia and her family,” Mulook told Arab News from Frankfurt. “Subsequently, she along with her entire family should be given German citizenship.”
“She has been acquitted by the apex court. [Anyone] filing a review petition doesn’t forbid her from flying abroad,” he argued, adding the judges had not yet suspended the verdict declaring her a free woman.
Faisal explained that a review petition had been filed, which would go through the due legal process. Mulook said that while Pakistan was taking care of her security, Bibi “needs to go abroad in order to live a free life.”
Speaking to reporters earlier, Mulook had said that Bibi would accept being granted asylum in any western country. “Talks are underway with several western countries,” he said.
“The judgment is fully in line with the law and constitution of the country, but the clerics and extreme factions caused such extreme violence that it brought the country to a standstill,” he added.
On October 31, the Supreme Court said it found Bibi not guilty, citing a lack of evidence in her case.
The decision prompted countrywide protests by the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, a far-right Islamist group. The protests, which turned violent in some areas, compelled the government to strike a deal with the protesters.
State must protect Aasia Bibi, says chief justice
State must protect Aasia Bibi, says chief justice
- Bibi should not get asylum since that will imply ‘Pakistan has failed’
- Judicial reforms imperative to protect rights of ordinary people
‘Look ahead or look up?’: Pakistan’s police face new challenge as militants take to drone warfare
- Officials say militants are using weapons and equipment left behind after allied forces withdrew from Afghanistan
- Police in northwest Pakistan say electronic jammers have helped repel more than 300 drone attacks since mid-2025
BANNU, Pakistan: On a quiet morning last July, Constable Hazrat Ali had just finished his prayers at the Miryan police station in Pakistan’s volatile northwest when the shouting began.
His colleagues in Bannu district spotted a small speck in the sky. Before Ali could take cover, an explosion tore through the compound behind him. It was not a mortar or a suicide vest, but an improvised explosive dropped from a drone.
“Now should we look ahead or look up [to sky]?” said Ali, who was wounded again in a second drone strike during an operation against militants last month. He still carries shrapnel scars on his back, hand and foot, physical reminders of how the battlefield has shifted upward.
For police in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, the fight against militancy has become a three-dimensional conflict. Pakistani officials say armed groups, including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), are increasingly deploying commercial drones modified to drop explosives, alongside other weapons they say were acquired after the US military withdrawal from neighboring Afghanistan.
Security analysts say the trend mirrors a wider global pattern, where low-cost, commercially available drones are being repurposed by non-state actors from the Middle East to Eastern Europe, challenging traditional policing and counterinsurgency tactics.
The escalation comes as militant violence has surged across Pakistan. Islamabad-based Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS) reported a 73 percent rise in combat-related deaths in 2025, with fatalities climbing to 3,387 from 1,950 a year earlier. Militants have increasingly shifted operations from northern tribal belts to southern KP districts such as Bannu, Lakki Marwat and Dera Ismail Khan.
“Bannu is an important town of southern KP, and we are feeling the heat,” said Sajjad Khan, the region’s police chief. “There has been an enormous increase in the number of incidents of terrorism… It is a mix of local militants and Afghan militants.”
In 2025 alone, Bannu police recorded 134 attacks on stations, checkpoints and personnel. At least 27 police officers were killed, while authorities say 53 militants died in the clashes. Many assaults involved coordinated, multi-pronged attacks using heavy weapons.
Drones have also added a new layer of danger. What began as reconnaissance tools have been weaponized with improvised devices that rely on gravity rather than guidance systems.
“Earlier, they used to drop [explosives] in bottles. After that, they started cutting pipes for this purpose,” said Jamshed Khan, head of the regional bomb disposal unit. “Now we have encountered a new type: a pistol hand grenade.”
When dropped from above, he explained, a metal pin ignites the charge on impact.
Deputy Superintendent of Police Raza Khan, who narrowly survived a drone strike during construction at a checkpoint, described devices packed with nails, bullets and metal fragments.
“They attach a shuttlecock-like piece on top. When they drop it from a height, its direction remains straight toward the ground,” he said.
TARGETING CIVILIANS
Officials say militants’ rapid adoption of drone technology has been fueled by access to equipment on informal markets, while police procurement remains slower.
“It is easy for militants to get such things,” Sajjad Khan said. “And for us, I mean, we have to go through certain process and procedures as per rules.”
That imbalance began to shift in mid-2025, when authorities deployed electronic anti-drone systems in the region. Before that, officers relied on snipers or improvised nets strung over police compounds.
“Initially, when we did not have that anti-drone system, their strikes were effective,” the police chief said, adding that more than 300 attempted drone attacks have since been repelled or electronically disrupted. “That was a decisive moment.”
Police say militants have also targeted civilians, killing nine people in drone attacks this year, often in communities accused of cooperating with authorities. Several police stations suffered structural damage.
Bannu’s location as a gateway between Pakistan and Afghanistan has made it a security flashpoint since colonial times. But officials say the aerial dimension of the conflict has placed unprecedented strain on local forces.
For constables like Hazrat Ali, new technology offers some protection, but resolve remains central.
“Nowadays, they have ammunition and all kinds of the most modern weapons. They also have large drones,” he said. “When we fight them, we fight with our courage and determination.”
