Christian man sentenced to death in Lahore for blasphemy

By Zahid Hussain Khan

LAHORE: A Christian man has been sentenced to death on charges of insulting Prophet Muhammad, a capital offense under the country’s blasphemy laws, his lawyer said.

Asif Parvaiz Masih, a resident of Lahore, was accused of sending derogatory messages about Prophet Muhammad, Islam and Quran to his Muslim employer Saeed Ahmed Khokhar back in 2013.

A case was registered against Pervaiz at a police station in Lahore after which he was taken into custody and put on trial which took seven years to conclude.

Saif-ul-Malook, the counsel for Maish, confirmed that his client was handed a death sentence by a trial court in Lahore on Tuesday. He was also slapped with a fine of 50, 000 Pakistani rupees (Approximately $300).

Malook said that there was no evidence against Masih and that he would file an appeal in a high court against the sentence.

In his defence, the father of four told the court that he was implicated in a false case for turning down his employer’s wish to convert to Islam.

According to a local court, Pervaiz’s father Anwar Maish had also been pressurized by a banned militant group in his hometown Narowal to convert to Islam. But he fled to Lahore with his family and went into hiding.

The death sentence comes days after a Christian man, David Masih, was arrested and charged with blasphemy after pages of Quran were found from inside a drain in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Within the deeply conservative Muslim-majority country, blasphemy has become a sensitive issue, where often unproven accusations can stir up violence.

More than 40 people, mostly minority Shia Muslims, have been rounded up in a nationwide crackdown on charges of insulting companions of Prophet Muhammad during Muharram mourning processions.

In 2017, a Pakistani Christian, Nadeem James, was sentenced to death for blasphemy after he sent a Muslim friend a poem on WhatsApp that insulted Islam.

In 2014, a Christian couple was lynched at a brick kiln after being falsely accused of desecrating the Quran.

In 2011, the provincial governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer and Catholic minister Shahbaz Bhatti were assassinated after they called for the existing blasphemy laws to be reformed.

Rights groups have repeatedly warned the laws are abused to victimize religious minorities or settle personal feuds.