ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court on Thursday delayed an appeal into a blasphemy case after one of the judges stepped down.

Police and troops had been stationed across Islamabad as the court readied to hear a final appeal in the case of Asia Bibi, who has been on death row since 2010.

But one of the three-judge bench, Justice Iqbal Hameed ur Rehman, told the court he had to recuse himself, claiming a conflict of interest.

"I was a part of the bench that was hearing the case of Salmaan Taseer, and this case is related to that," he told the court.

Taseer, former governor Pinjab, was gunned down in Islamabad in 2011 and his assassin, Mumtaz Qadri, was hanged earlier in 2016.

Rehman was chief justice on the Islamabad High Court which heard Qadri's appeal in 2011, according to local media.

The Supreme Court did not immediately set a new date for Bibi's appeal.