Blasphmey- Junaid Hafeez was sentenced to death for blasphemy

MULTAN, Dec 21st: Additional Session Judge Multan Kashif Qayyum has awarded death sentence under section 295-C, Life term imprisonment under section 295-B and ten year Rigorous Imprisonment & fined Rs.0.5 million under section 295-A of PPC to a visiting lecturer of Bahauddin Zakariya University Junaid Hafeez on the charge of uploading objectionable sectarian material on social media, desecration of Holy Quran and using objectionable remarks about Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).The judgement was announced in New Central Jail at 11-15 am on Saturday in the presence of the accused and the prosecution lawyers Asad Jamal (Cousel of the accused) and The prosecution lawyers Syed Athar Hassan Shah Bukhari former President of High Court Bar Association Multan, Mian Sajjad Ahmed Chavan,Ex-District & Session Judge, Azeem-ul-Haq Pirzada, Muhammad Zafar Punian Ex-SSP, Hafiz Allah Ditta Kashif, Muhammad Hassan Siddhu, Malik Muhammad Sarfraz  Jarh, Muhammad Umar Farooq and Khizar Hayat Qureshi. Syed Athar Shah Bukhari main Lawyers from the prosecution told that It was a victory of justice and we have achieved our objective to take a blasphemer to task. He was misguiding and misleading our children in the campus."We have no personal grudge with him but he committed the crime which is not pardonble. He was formerly a visiting faculty member of the Department of English Literature of the Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) who  has been languishing in solitary confinement in Multan Central Jail for the last six years. Six years of solitary confinement has taken its toll on the mental and physical health of Junaid. He was arrested in March 2013 on blasphemy charges and since then transfer of judges, delaying tactics by prosecution witnesses and lawyers’ reluctance to present the suspect sit on the trial. During the course, Rashid Rehman, who dared put up the defence of Junaid, was gunned down in 2014. The last hearing was conducted on December 18 Junaid’s statement was recorded on November 21st. They say their son has been languishing in solitary confinement in a cell of the Central Jail, Multan, for the last six years on the false charge of blasphemy.

"The failure to apprehend those who shot Rehman dead signaled impunity for other would-be vigilantes," Hafeez's lawyer and family said in a statement released after Saturday's verdict."Could any judge in such circumstances take the risk of doing justice? Those who could [be] were transferred from the district or brought under pressure by groups of lawyers operating as mafias."Zia-ur-Rehman, the prosecutor in the case, denied allegations that the prosecution attempted to delay the case or intimidate the judge, telling Al Jazeera that "this was a very fair trial" after the verdict was announced.

Taking a toll

Hafeez's lawyer said the conditions of his incarceration were taking a toll on the young academic.

"He has been very agitated. He cannot talk very coherently," he said. "When I used to meet him in the beginning [of the case], he would meet me with a smile and had a lot of passion ... after so many years in solitary confinement, it has an effect on a person."

Amnesty International, a United Kingdom-based rights group, called Saturday's verdict "a travesty".

"Junaid Hafeez's death sentence is a gross miscarriage of justice," said Rabia Mehmood, Pakistan researcher at Amnesty. "The verdict of the Multan court is extremely disappointing and surprising. Junaid's entire case and lengthy trial has been unfair and a travesty."

In a statement issued on Saturday, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said it was "dismayed by the verdict", adding that "HRCP believes that the blasphemy laws are heavily misused".

"In five years, at least eight judges have heard Mr Hafeez’s case, making a fair trial virtually impossible. Meanwhile, he has undergone six years’ imprisonment in solitary confinement," added the statement.

"HRCP reposes its faith in the higher judiciary and hopes that the verdict will be overturned in appeal."

Blasphemy is a sensitive subject in Pakistan, where insulting the Quran or Prophet Muhammad can result in life imprisonment or a death sentence. Increasingly, blasphemy accusations also carry the threat of extrajudicial violence by mobs or in targeted attacks.

At least 75 people have been killed in connection with blasphemy accusations in Pakistan since 1990, according to an Al Jazeera tally. The murdered include those accused of the crime, people acquitted by the courts, their lawyers, family members and judges connected to their cases.

Last year, Pakistan's Supreme Court acquitted Aasia Bibi, a Christian woman accused of committing blasphemy and held on death row for nine years, in a landmark ruling that vindicated fair trial concerns expressed by rights groups in blasphemy cases.