LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) _ A lawyer says a Pakistani court has barred the country’s president from pardoning a Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy until it rules on her appeal.

The lawyer says the Lahore High Court’s chief justice issued the order Monday.

Pakistan’s minister for Minority Affairs has said that President Asif Ali Zardari plans to give the court a chance to hear the appeal in the case of Asia (AH’-see-ah) Bibi.

He said Zardari would pardon Bibi if the appeal was delayed.

Bibi’s case prompted an appeal from Pope Benedict XVI after the mother of five was sentenced to death for insulting Islam’s Prophet Mohammed. Her family says she was falsely accused over a personal dispute.