Progressive Pakistani academic Junaid Hafeez has been languishing in jail for the last 10 years after he was arrested in March 2013 over dubious blasphemy allegations and was sentenced to death by a Multan court in 2019. It has been over three years and the Lahore High Court is yet to take up his appeal against the death sentence.
Junaid Hafeez was a lecturer at the Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, where he was targeted by religious extremist groups for his liberal teachings. The students had distributed pamphlets calling for Hafeez to be arrested and hanged, and staged a strike. Hafeez was quickly expelled from the university.
He was arrested on March 13, 2013, in Multan over blasphemy allegations.
Hafeez has been held in solitary confinement due to security concerns since 2014 when his lawyer, prominent rights activist Rashid Rehman, was murdered.
The attack came after Rehman had been threatened in open court by religious leaders and lawyers associated with the prosecution.
Following the incident, the five-year trial was held in a high-security jail.
The trial saw frequent delays and transfer of 8 judges, making a fair trial near possible.
The court in Multan sentenced Junaid Hafeez to death over the dubious allegations in 2019, drawing condemnation from human rights defenders.
The high court is yet to take up his appeal against the death sentence.
Hafeez had studied a Master’s degree in the US on a Fulbright Scholarship, specialising in American literature, photography, and theatre.
