By Akbar Bajwa

Model Town Investigation SP Saifullah Khattak said that police had been unable to record the woman’s statement yet. “She talks too fast and often starts talking about things other than what is asked of her. The policemen who interrogated her have doubts about her mental stability,” he said.

The SP said that she would be sent for a psychiatric evaluation to determine if she was fit to stand trial or if she bore responsibility for her alleged actions. The evaluation is to take place once her judicial remand ends on September 17.

Other officials at the SP’s office said that she would be sent to Services Hospital or the Mental Hospital for the evaluation, depending on which hospital police felt was more secure.

SP Khattak said that the woman’s handwritten notes which allegedly contained blasphemous material would be sent for forensic analysis to determine if they matched her handwriting.

Operations SP Tariq Aziz, who is currently on leave, said that he had seen the pamphlets and they contained no direct claim of prophethood on the woman’s behalf.

Qazi, the complainant in the case, accused the police of seeking to given the woman undue protection. “She has claimed to be a prophet and deserves the death penalty under Pakistani law,” he said, adding that he believed she was mentally fit as she taught schoolchildren mathematics.

The officer in charge of investigations at Nishtar Town police station said that the case was being looked into by the Model Town Investigation SP, while the SP said that the Nishtar Town investigation officer was following the case more closely.

SP Khattak said that he had had additional charge of operations for the last three days so he had not had enough time to look into the case properly.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 6^th, 2013.