LHC hears Junaid Hafeez's appeal in blasphemy case, seeks prosecution's arguments on admissibility of digital evidence

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) took up former university lecturer Junaid Hafeez’s appeal against his death sentence in a blasphemy case on Tuesday, seeking arguments from the prosecution on the admissibility of electronic evidence. Hafeez was sentenced to death in 2019 and his appeal against his conviction has been pending since 2020. A two-judge bench, comprising Justices Sadiq Mahmud Khurram and Muhammad Jawad Zafar, took up the appeal on Tuesday as complainant’s lawyer, Advocate Athar Shah Bokhari, and Hafeez’s lawyer, Advocate Asad Jamal, appeared before the court. The hearing began with the bench observing that formal notices had not been issued to the parties since the transfer of Hafeez’s appeal from the Multan bench to the principal seat. The case was transferred on the request of Hafeez’s lawyer in December 2021.

During the hearing on Tuesday, the LHC issued notices on the appeal, which the lawyers for the prosecution and the complainant received in the court. The court further stated that it would like to hear the prosecution on the admissibility of electronic evidence involved in the case and the Facebook page attributed to Hafeez. It then decided to adjourn the hearing till Oct 7, but the complainant’s counsel sought a longer adjournment to prepare his arguments. The bench then said it would announce the date of the next hearing later and eventually scheduled the hearing for Oct 10. Hafeez — a former visiting lecturer at the Department of English Literature of the Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) — was arrested by police on March 13, 2013 and his trial in the blasphemy case, linked to Facebook uploads, began in 2014. He was sentenced to death by a Multan district and sessions court on December 21, 2019 on blasphemy charges and subsequently appealed…