An additional sessions court in Lahore on Tuesday sentenced a Christian man to death after convicting him of sending text messages containing “blasphemous content”.
Asif Pervaiz, 37, has been in custody since 2013 fighting blasphemy charges that were levelled against him by the supervisor of the garment factory he once worked at. The supervisor had accused him of sending derogatory remarks about Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) to him in a text message.
The court order issued by Additional Sessions Judge Mansoor Ahmad Qureshi, , said Pervaiz would first serve a three-year prison term for “misusing” his phone to send the derogatory text message. Then “he shall be hanged by his neck till his death.” He was also fined Rs50,000, the order said.
Pervaiz's lawyer Saiful Malook told that Pervaiz has denied all charges against him and had merely forwarded the text messages in question.
“This case should have been thrown out by the judge,” Malook said, adding he would appeal the verdict in the Lahore High Court.
“He has already spent seven years awaiting the court's decision. Who knows how many more years he will have to wait till this is over?”
Pervaiz claims his supervisor, who had been trying to convert him to Islam, had accused him of blasphemy after he quit his factory job.
Human rights groups say blasphemy laws are often misused to persecute minorities or even against Muslims to settle personal rivalries. Such accusations can end up in lynchings or street vigilantism.
Up to 80 people are known to be imprisoned in the country on such charges — half of whom face life in prison or the death penalty — according to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.
In July, a US citizen of Pakistani origin on trial over blasphemy allegations in Peshawar was shot dead in a courtroom by a teenager who told bystanders he killed him for insulting the Prophet Muhammad.
Since his arrest, the alleged shooter has been glorified as a “holy warrior” by supporters and thousands of people have rallied to demand his release.A court in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore has sentenced a Christian man to death for having committed "blasphemy", his lawyer says, in the latest case of Pakistan's strict religious laws being applied against minorities.
Asif Pervaiz, 37, has been in custody since 2013 when he was accused of having sent "blasphemous" text messages to a former supervisor at work, lawyer Saif-ul-Malook told Al Jazeera.
The court rejected his testimony wherein he denied the charges and sentenced him to death on Tuesday.
"The complainant was a supervisor in a hosiery factory where Asif was working under him," said Malook.
"He denied the allegations and said that this man was trying to get him to convert to Islam."
Speaking in his own defence in court earlier in the trial, Pervaiz claimed the supervisor confronted him after he quit work at the factory, and when he refused to convert he was accused of having sent blasphemous text messages to the man.
Blasphemy laws
Muhammad Saeed Khokher, the complainant in the case, denies wanting to convert Parvaiz, according to his lawyer, Ghulam Mustafa Chaudhry.
"He has taken this defence after the fact, because he had no other clear defence," Chaudhry told Al Jazeera. "That's why he accused him of trying to convert him."
Chaudhry said there were other Christian employees at the factory, but none have accused Khokher of proselytising.
Pakistan's strict blasphemy laws prescribe a mandatory death penalty for the crime of insulting Islam's Prophet Muhammad, and strict penalties for other infractions such as insulting Islam, the holy Quran or certain holy people.
There are currently at least 80 people in prison in Pakistan for the crime of "blasphemy", with at least half of them facing life sentences or the death penalty, according to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).
Those accused under the laws are mainly Muslim, in a country where 98 percent of the population follows Islam, but the laws disproportionately target members of minorities such as Christians and Hindus.
His murderer was apprehended and was garlanded with roses by far-right supporters during subsequent court appearances.
This month has seen a sharp spike in blasphemy cases being registered in Pakistan, particularly in the most populous province of Punjab. Many of these cases have targeted the country's sizeable Shia Muslim minority, which forms roughly 15 percent of the population.
Since a series of large-scale sit-in protests on the issue of blasphemy in 2017, political parties have increasingly been including messaging on blasphemy in their platforms.
The Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) political party, formed by firebrand scholar Khadim Hussain Rizvi ahead of the 2018 polls, campaigned on a platform based on defence of the blasphemy laws.
While it won few seats, it garnered the fourth-highest share of the countrywide popular vote by a single party.
